LOCAL FARMERS LAUNCH "PEOPLE'S TV" TO SHORT- LIVED

C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIJING 016959 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/17/2031 TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI KCUL CH SUBJECT: LOCAL FARMERS LAUNCH "PEOPLE'S TV" TO SHORT- LIVED ACCLAIM Classified By: Classified by Political Section Acting Internal Unit Chief Susan A. Thornton. Reasons 1.4 (b/d). Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) According to a senior journalist at the State Council Development Research Center paper, China Economic Times, local farmers in south-central China recently defied a prohibition on privately-run broadcasting facilities and established their own "People's TV." When authorities got wind of the operation and shut it down, peasants took to the streets in protest. Comment: Attempts by farmers to establish "People's TV" and the subsequent protest point to a desire for more meaningful public discourse and participation, difficulties in trying to control information technology and increasing defiance in the countryside. End Summary. Peasant Media Entreprenuers -------------- ¶2. (C) During a wide-ranging discussion on media and other issues, China Economic Times editor Zhang Xiantang (protect),told Poloffs that farmers in the Anhui-Henan-Hubei provincial border area recently set up their own local TV station, transmitting local news programs of interest to residents in ten surrounding counties. Zhang said the farmers raised money locally for the equipment and conducted their own interviews and filming. ¶3. (C) The programming, which proved very popular, included unvarnished views on a variety of rural grievances such as local corruption, land grabs by officials, instructions on how to conduct free elections and veiled criticism of the Communist Party. The station apparently remained in operation for several weeks before being discovered and shut down by authorities, a move that sparked local protest demonstrations. "The rest of China is fixated on 'Super Girls' contests, but these farmers have really got it together," Zhang commented. ¶4. (C) Zhang said he was not clear on how the programs were transmitted or received, but it was his understanding that the organizers used basic off-the- shelf technology acquired either in China or abroad. According to Zhang, news of the event was not widely known outside of the area where it occurred and official media were forbidden to report on it. Zhang said that some officials had speculated that Falun Gong or some other outside group was backing the farmers' effort, a notion which Zhang himself dismissed. Comment -------------- ¶5. (C) In a climate of increasingly tight media control, this extraordinary event is not only further evidence of growing defiance of local authority among China's rural population, but of the difficulties the regime continues to face in its efforts to control information technology. Efforts to establish a "People's TV" also hint at growing popular frustration with the lack of meaningful public information and participation. RANDT