Since the start of the Olympics we have seen China censoring Pro Tibetan rallies in Beijing, that nasty bus crash a few days ago and even seen them arresting a reporter for ITN news, which led to some amusing footage of him hanging out of a police cars window screaming "I'm a journalist!" to the camera crew, as they calmly filmed it all. This is not uncommon in a country where the news is run by the government and, up until the Cultural Revolution, the arts were run by the military. Censorship is a big issue in the world, Amnesty International is doing its bit with the "Uncensor China" search engine, and the rest of the world apply just enough pressure so it seems they are doing the right thing, but not so much pressure that the Chinese get angry and stop free trade. This is expected of China, not Australia. It is dismaying that Channel Seven thought it prudent to break their contractual agreement and not air the "Get Up!"ad at the agreed time. You really have to ask the question: Why? Did they not want to offend the Chinese? But in doing so they broke the law and offended the Tibetans. Did they run out of airtime? No, probably not. And even if they did they should have cut short the televised broadcast of miming girls and fake fireworks to fit enough space in for all the ads. Or they should have just not aired as many ads. So why did they cut the ads?
My personal belief is that they did it so they wouldn't lose ratings by airing a controversial ad. They didn't want a single Australian to think: "That ad is wrong, why would Channel Seven play that? I'm going to flick over and watch Infomercials or Weather Watch because that is the only thing worth watching at one in the morning."
Channel Seven stuffed up. By not airing this ad they have killed free speech. Channel Seven needs to be punished and made an example of, because if this trend continues than freedom of speech will become a distant memory taught in ancient history classes.
--Ben Hurry--
http://blog-my-ride.blogspot.com/
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i actually agree with not playing this ad.I have watched it and find it an unnecesary plug at kevin rudd.The ad seems to me to insinuate that if kevin rudd does not raise concerns with china about tibet then he will face a political backlash. altough i am a liberal i feel that he should not be held accountable for something that is largely out of his hands
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