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ABC dismisses reporting of China content deal by News Corp newspaper as ‘simply wrong’

Australian public service broadcaster ABC has dismissed the reporting of News Corporation-owned newspaper The Australian, which it says has “misrepresented” a deal between itself and Chinese national broadcaster CCTV and suggested that Australian content would be heavily censored.

The ABC and China’s Shanghai Media Group struck a deal to create an online portal for ABC’s programs that will enable Australian content, including news as well as entertainment formats, to be broadcast into Chinese living rooms.

The deal is one of the first of its kind that enables a Western content-maker to go behind the Chinese internet firewall with the portal AustraliaPlus.cn.

The Australian newspaper, which tends to take a hardline against public service broadcasters, dismissed the alliance as “a standard program co-operation and exchange deal”.

But in a statement issued today, the ABC attacked The Australian’s reporting as “simply wrong”.

It quoted the executive director of Shanghai Media Group’s International Channel, Sun Wei, who stressed the magnitude of the deal and said it was significant for “building friendship and understanding” between China and Australia.

Sun said: “We see SMG’s partnership and cooperation with the ABC as the most detailed, the most wide ranging, the most active in implementation and, with the signing of the new agreement last week, one which has enormous scope for future prospects.”

The ABC also dismissed suggestions made by the Australian that its content would be heavily censored by the Chinese authorities.

The statement read: “The facts are that we have partnerships with China’s major media outlets for the distribution of radio, television and online programs, all of which cover a wide range of content, including news and none of which has been censored to date. ABC’s flagship discussion panel show Q & A was broadcast live from Shanghai on April 7. Immediately following broadcast the program was posted on youku, China’s YouTube, then rebroadcast four times on SMG’s International Channel.”

In full, the statement from the ABC reads:

In recent days The Australian newspaper has continued to misrepresent the facts on the ABC’s new agreement with the Shanghai Media Group signed in Sydney on Wednesday, June 4.

Despite providing the publication with the facts and providing statements from both the ABC and the Chinese partners it is necessary to once again set the record straight.

The Australian dismisses the agreement the ABC signed with SMG as nothing more than “standard” and one of “at least 40 similar deals”.

This is simply wrong.

Since we first signed with the Shanghai broadcaster in 2010 this partnership has grown into something far more than standard, a fact the Chinese themselves have confirmed.  It is today a significant strategic partnership that supports the ABC in establishing a Chinese portal delivering programs and content directly to Chinese audiences and a business base in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.

The agreement is supported at the highest levels of the Chinese government. It was signed in Sydney by the Vice President of SMG, Madame Wang Jianjun, and witnessed by one of China’s most senior politicians, Mr Han Zheng, the Party Secretary for the City of Shanghai and a member of China’s national politburo. Mr Sun Wei, Executive Director of Shanghai Media Group’s International Channel, said today:  “We value all of our international relationships and partnerships. However, we see SMG’s partnership and cooperation with the ABC as the most detailed, the most wide ranging, the most active in implementation and, with the signing of the new agreement last week, one which has enormous scope for future prospects. We are going forward with the ABC Australia on all of our joint projects which are of significant international scope and benefit to both media organisations, and we believe will help to build friendship and understanding between China and Australia.”

The Australian has also claimed that China will censor ABC content. The facts are that we have partnerships with China’s major media outlets for the distribution of radio, television and online programs, all of which cover a wide range of content, including news and none of which has been censored to date. ABC’s flagship discussion panel show Q & A was broadcast live from Shanghai on April 7.  Immediately following broadcast the program was posted on youku, China’s YouTube, then rebroadcast four times on SMG’s International Channel.

We are now working with SMG to realise the potential our new agreement represents for the ABC and SMG and more broadly for China and Australia.  We look forward to sharing these developments as they unfold in the coming months and as we move towards launching the AustraliaPlus.cn portal.

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