“I hope that in the future, I will have the opportunity to be reborn.” On December 31, 2020, after the last episode of the show produced by the original “Cable China Team” was aired, director Situ Yuan used these words to bring the “Cable China Team” to a perfect end, and at the same time, left a vague message.
Since the “Cable China Team” announced their collective resignation in early December last year, viewers have been unhappy and have been calling for the team to “start a new business”. The 10 members of the original “Cable China Group” finally announced recently that they would join the online media “News” and reappear as the “News China Group” to continue the team’s “China News Dream”. The team’s “China News Dream” will be continued.
The first shot will be to report on China’s epidemic and the latest economic situation, and to retain part of the format of the original “Cable China Group” TV program, analyzing the latest situation in China for viewers every night.
Yang Jianxing, the editor-in-chief of Crowd News, recalls that when Crowd News was founded four years ago, just like now, he saw that the media space was narrowing and the outlook of the media industry was gloomy, and he wanted to convey a message to the society.
“Is our choice to live from day to day and do what we can for as long as we can? Or should we take a big step forward if we have the opportunity? If we have the opportunity, we also want to send a message that there is still a way to continue to do this business.”
There is a heart and talent to continue, the rest is the problem of funding. At present, the “News” full-time establishment of 13 people, the “China team” to join, equivalent to “double” the manpower. The editor-in-chief of the “News”, Li Yuehua, revealed that after four years of development, the “News” has not been able to break even, and with the addition of the “China team”, it is urgent to raise a start-up fund to appeal to the public for subscription support, and encourage existing monthly subscribers to switch to annual subscriptions to support the new development of the team.
“We choose to continue, the key is whether people will choose us or not”
In the latest promotional video, a familiar face from the original “Cable China Team” is shown, facing the public with a question: “We choose to continue, the key is whether people will choose us or not.”
Li Yuehua, editor-in-chief of Crowd News, said it was a “bold step”, “but if we don’t try, we’ll never know if we’ll succeed”. Yang Jianxing, the editor-in-chief of “News”, hopes to change the old ecology of the media in Hong Kong, from the past mode of big bosses and consortia supporting media operations, to the public’s own support for the media: “In the past, we took it for granted, but a lot of news is no longer available before we can cherish it.
He hopes to provide the public with choices and change some of the social habits, confident that social awareness is changing and that there is still a market for Chinese news.
In the past, the China Cable Group had stations in Beijing and Guangzhou, where its correspondents followed the latest developments in China around the clock. However, after the “Cable China Unit” became the “China Unit of Crowd News,” it is doubtful whether journalists can apply to cover China again. The former assistant interview director of the China Cable Group, Ms. Huang Liping, said that there is no plan to send reporters to China at the moment, and that the team will apply to cover the mainland again after it has gained a firm foothold.
The team said it would be a pity if they could not apply for on-site coverage, but with the development of the network, it is not necessary to “cross the Lo Wu Bridge” before they can continue to do China news.
Hong Kong Cable TV News Department in early December last year to restructure the reason, dismissed a large number of senior staff, including the former “cable China team” assistant interview director Huang Liping, the management did not communicate with the team leaders beforehand, triggering the “cable China team” resigned en masse.
Hong Kong journalists document the true history of China
After the departure of most of the members of the former “Cable China Group,” the current “Cable China Group” program uses a lot of official information as the content of its reports, and its reporting orientation has been described as a “change of tone. The reportage has been described as a “change of tone”. Hong Kong was once described as the freest land in China, and Hong Kong journalists played an important role as witnesses and chroniclers of many critical moments in China’s history.
Hu Jia, a Chinese rights activist, recalls his earliest encounter with a Hong Kong journalist in Tiananmen Square more than 30 years ago. “The young Hong Kong journalist speaking Cantonese was in the tent of students.”
Hu Jia describes Hong Kong journalists as “fellow Hong Kong journalists”, and for more than 30 years after 1989, he has been dealing with Hong Kong journalists, even helping to arrange for them to interview Liu Xia, who was still under house arrest in Beijing at the time, and even having Hong Kong journalists beaten up. “Over the years I’ve actually witnessed the dedication, the devotion, and the overall price paid by my fellow Hong Kong media members.”
Hu Jia said that Hong Kong journalists have left a lot of China’s real reports and records, not only let Hong Kong viewers see the reality of China, some of the reports are “exported to domestic sales”, back to the lack of freedom of the press in China, circulating on the Internet, “is a kind of recognition, support and inspiration for us. “
He lamented that with the promulgation of the Hong Kong National Security Law and Beijing’s tightened control over Hong Kong, only media that are “close to the government’s pace” will be welcomed by Beijing, while media that are genuinely concerned about China’s reality and have independent opinions will be subject to official control, making it difficult in all areas.
Veteran China journalist: A sense of mission versus reality
Liu Ruishao, a veteran China journalist in Hong Kong, described the current situation of the former China Cable Group as the same as when he left Wen Wei Po after 1989 and joined other media professionals to run the weekly magazine Contemporary, facing difficulties in funding and reporting channels.
Liu Ruishao said, now in Hong Kong under the high-pressure governance of Beijing, more and more Hong Kong people are concerned about the situation in China, the future of China news market will be bigger.
Without the support of large consortia, it is foreseeable that the Chinese Communist Party officials may use this as a reason to deny permission for journalists from the China News Group to cover China, and even if journalists go to China in their personal capacity, they may be accused of “illegal reporting”; however, Liu Ruishao believes that But Liu Ruishao believes that modern information is developed, can not enter the interview, does not mean that it is completely unable to report the situation in China, “the Yuan Dynasty is so high pressure, we can think of using moon cakes to spread the news, nowadays there are more methods.”
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