Saturday, July 26, 2008

Olympics dominates Chinese news


CCTV on Friday continued to show final preparations being made as the Beijing games approached. From increased security measures to new fire-fighting equipment being demonstrated, authorities are making strident efforts to ensure the games are safe. The final batch of tickets went on sale Friday prompting thousands to queue for hours outside Olympic venues in Beijing. Another torch relay finished its run in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, before making its final leg to China's capital. Chinese news broadcasts are dominated with reports of the upcoming games. In Friday's edition of World Wide Watch the first report focused on the many athletic teams making ready to take part in the sporting event. CCTV-9 mainly focused on China's own athletes including basketball teams and diving participants. However, the channel also reported on preparations being made by Russia, Britain's cycling team and on athletes from Jamaica.


The Media Village opened Friday from where hundreds of foriegn journalists will operate. And dozens of High Definition outside broadcast vehicles also arrived in Beijing which will relay pictures around the world.


Aside from Olympic coverage, CCTV also reported briefly on other headlines from around the world. One item concerned a bomb blast in India which killed one person. Few details were broadcast concerning the incident and no pictures were initially shown. Another explosion forced a Qantas flight to make an emergency landing in Manila. There were no reported injuries aboard the Boeing 747 following the incident which damaged the cargo area of the fuselage and caused part of the ceiling to collapse. There was no explanation as to what caused the explosion. Meanwhile, back in China two were killed and over 140,000 buildings collapsed following a 5.6 magnitude earthquake on the borders of Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces.

[tvnewswatch, Kunming, Yunnan province, China]

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