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#TVB #CCTVB #WhiteWash #Election
"#FakeNews": Pro-Beijing TV Channel Broadcast Misleading Report of Postponed Elections Overseas

Beijing-friendly TVB reported on 17 August 2020 on several postponed elections in other countries. However, its graphic titled "Five Eyes Alliance Postpones Elections" quickly angered netizens, who accused the TV station for whitewashing Beijing's forceful postponement of Hong Kong's legislative elections.

The report was seen as portraying other nations' election delay to legitimize what happened in Hong Kong. Some netizens outright called it "fake news".

In fact, out of the five countries listed, New Zealand is the only one postponing a federal-level election, and that only by one month. Britain's parliamentary elections was last held in 2019, and the next one will not be held until 2024. The elections cited by TVB were for a number local councils and mayors. Australia's is for the provincial government of New South Wales, and it is only delayed by four weeks. In Canada's case, the dates were for municipal elections in the single province of New Brunswick.

Joshua Wong noted that, most significantly, the decision to delay these elections were made by democratically-elected governments, who are voted in and can be voted out by their citizens. In contrast, Hong Kong's postponement was singlehandedly decided by China's National Congress, precluding and overruling any decision the Hong Kong Legislature might make, thus giving Hongkongers no say in the matter.

The screenshot of the TVB graphic was widely circulated in a Facebook post since yesterday. As citizens from the countries concerned confirmed that no federal elections were scheduled, netizens accused TVB for using the information to mislead and justify China postponing Hong Kong's legislative election, which is indeed a top-level election. Some are calling for the TV station to immediately issue a correction and clarification.

Sources: Patrick Yeh's Facebook; Joshua Wong's Facebook; Kau Yim Media #Aug18

Actual News on Election Postponements:

Britain:

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/parliament-and-elections/elections-elections/coronavirus-faqs-on-postponed-election/

Australia:
https://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/Elections/Local-government-elections/Local-Government-Elections-2021

Canada:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/municipal-elections-postponed-covid-1.5500648

#FiveEyesAlliance
#Newspaper

“Fake news” - China News Agency Xinhua deliberately reported disinformation of protest in Minsk

(16 Aug) China official state-run News Agency, Xinhua, reported a mass rally held in Minsk, Capital of Belarus, supporting government on 16 August. Around 70 thousand people gathered in Independence Square, Minsk. Pro-government camp organised the protest showing their support to the government, Alexander Lukashenko, and prosperity and peace of the country. Mr Lukashenko said on the scene no vote-rigging in the election of the president and not instigating people for violence. He continued that army of Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been already garrisoned at the border of Belarus and the country will be turmoil if re-election of the president.

The presidential election of Belarus held on 9 August with five candidates including the incumbent president, Alexander Lukashenko. The Central Election Commission finalised the result on 14 August and announced Mr Lukshenko won with 80.1% votes.

Editor’s Note: News in many western media such as the Guardians, BBC, CNN, etc., reported that tens of thousands gathered in Minsk for the biggest protest in Belarus history against the government.

Source: The Guardian, Xinhau News
Summary by: Hong Kong Echo

Further reading:
Beijing softened rhetoric after being attacked repeatedly by the US but critics believes it is only stopgap
https://telegra.ph/Beijing-softened-rhetoric-after-being-attacked-repeatedly-by-the-US-but-critics-believes-it-is-only-stopgap-08-21
Thanks to our motherland
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/23993

#Belarua #Protest #Minsk #FakeNews #Xinhua #ChinesePropaganda
#Smearing #CCPControl #FakeNews
The Hong Kong-America Centre Shuts Sown its Offices After Being Smeared by China-Controlled Media

Since the end of 2019, China-owned newspaper Ta Kung Pao and Global Times have been tirelessly reprimanding the Hong Kong-America Centre for being "lavishly backed with US fund" and “manipulating the University General Studies” via the Fulbright Program, one renowned academic exchange program led by the Center. The Center was also said to be “infiltrated” by “anti-China forces” and was acused of "brainwashing youngsters and subverting China".

Academia, however, pointed out that the Center has been driving academic exchange and coordination. The closure of the Center is a loss to both Hong Kong and China.

Apple Daily has looked into the accusations made by the CCP-controlled mouthpieces and found gaps:

- Ta Kung Pao’s accusation:
The Hong Kong-America Centre was funded by several heavy-weight organisations, including the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the East-West Centre. Among them, NDI allocated $524,000 to the Center from 2013 - 2018 under a “Young Female Leader Advocacy” program.

- Apple Daily’s findings:
Based on the Center’s Financial Statement, around 30-40% of the Center’s fund in the past 5 years came primarily from local universities averaging over hundreds of thousands a year. The remaining 60% came from the surplus of the Center’s operating projects, among which was connected to NDI. From 2014 – 2017, a total fund amounted $285,000 was received from NDI, after deducting expenses, a balance of $117,000 was recorded.

- Ta Kung Pao’s accusation:
The “Women’s Training Camp” organised for Mainland female leaders was funded and led by NDI.

The program invited former Commercial Radio Station Chief, Wong Wing to talk about leadership capabilities and PR tactics, which was actually intended to encourage candidates to learn from the Middle-East women to stand against their governments and subvert China.

- Apple Daily’s findings:
When being asked, Wong Wing clarified that he was invited to talk about the media landscape in Hong Kong and his work experience only.

- Ta Kung Pao’s accusation:
The Centre “routinely organizes anti-China brain-washing activities”, such as “Let’s Talk: Youth Summit on Hong Kong Elections” which was organised on the eve of the Umbrella Movement in 2014.

The program invited Anson Chan and Joseph Cheng as speakers and discussed “negotiating strategy for mass protest activities”, sowing seed for youngsters to aspire universal suffrage as the ultimate goal in a protest activity.

- Apple Daily’s findings:
Responding to the paper’s inquiries, both Joseph Cheng and Eric Heikkila, a Professor of International Public Policy at the University of Southern California, expressed that “I cannot recall a single incident or activity that I would in any way described as ‘anti-China’”.

- Ta Kung Pao’s accusation:
From 2006 – 2012, the US Consulate arranged 25 US academia to Hong Kong via the Fulbright Program.

The HK-America Center was the bridge connecting the academia to 8 universities in Hong Kong. They were involved in designing and teaching General Studies, in other words, "manipulating the curriculum" of the city’s higher education program.

- Apple Daily’s findings:
Wong Wai-Ho, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration said that the Center’s role was to facilitate academic exchange, involving in the coordination works between the US consulate and universities.

Editor’s note:
The Hong Kong-America Center was set up in early 2000 to advance educational exchanges between China and the United States over the bridge of Hong Kong.

Source: Apple Daily #Aug28
https://bit.ly/2ED7C9G

#PoliticalOppression #Education #Academia
#Fulbright #ExchangeProgram
#HKAmericaCentre #TaKungPao #GlobalTimes
#OpenLetter #Netflix

The Dilemma with The Social Dilemma

To the creators of The Social Dilemma,

It is understandable to gloss over all the nuances when you only have 90 minutes to talk about a topic as daunting as social engineering through social media. To omit some critical ones seems a bit questionable, though. Perhaps there is a clever nod to internet culture by being meta and subtly trolling your own audience. We are no tech experts and have no experience in the large-scale manipulation of human behaviour. However, we do know that while the images and scenes you used in your documentary are true, the tales you spun with them are not.

Continue:
https://telegra.ph/The-Dilemma-with-The-Social-Dilemma-09-15

Written by: Hong Kong Echo

#FakeNews #SmartLampPost #misinformation
#Save12HKYouths
Chinese State Media Defend China's Detention of the 12 Hongkongers

China’s mouthpiece, Xinhua News Agency, mentioned for the first time on September 25, the 12 Hongkongers who have been detained in Shenzhen, China for more than a month. The article said they were accused of breaching Chinese border controls and that, as there was no extradition treaty between Hong Kong and the mainland, the Chinese government has the power to detain, handle and punish them.

The state news agency slammed pro-democracy lawmakers for seeking to draw foreign help over the incident by framing the matter as a human rights issue. Xinhua News claimed, "the democrats were blatantly exploiting the 12 Hong Kong people and their families for their own benefit, in order to incite hate against the city’s government and China".

"Xinhua News was twisting facts about Hong Kong people’s distrust of Beijing", Hong Kong lawmaker Eddie Chu told Apple Daily. He pointed out that the article failed to answer key questions such as why lawyers have been barred from visiting the 12 detainees, and the lack of evidence to prove that they were really captured in Chinese waters.

Pro-democracy activist Owen Chow, responded on behalf of the families and reiterated that it was the families who sought help from the lawmakers and not the other way round, as Xinhua News had wrongly accused. The families demanded that the Hong Kong government respond to their requests directly, Chow said.

Source: Apple Daily #Sept25
https://hk.appledaily.com/news/20200926/WNRX6LUOGNCUTAE7NOGW7LJJEM/

#RulebyLaw #Save12HongKongYouths #XinhuaNews #FakeNews #ChinaPropaganda #IllegalDetention
#FakeNews #Disinformation
China Tampers With #WHO Video, Removes a Crucial "If", and Falsely Claims Vaccine Success

Source: Fact Check Lab, Hong Kong

#WuhanPneumonia #CoronavirusPandemic #Covid19Vaccine
#FakeNews #Disinformation
China Tampers With #WHO Video, Removes a Crucial "If", and Falsely Claims Vaccine Success

China's state-run CCTV News posted a video on Sept 24, 2020 to their Chinese-language Facebook page, claiming that WHO had stated that China's COVID-19 vaccine had "proved to be successful" in current clinical trials.

The video was reposted by a number of pro-Beijing Facebook pages, with captions such as "WHO Top Scientist: New Chinese COVID Vaccine Proven to be Effective", "China is Great 👍 For the Good of the World".

However, Factcheck Lab compared the video disseminated by China with the actual proceedings of WHO's press conference, and found that CCTV had cut the statement out of context, carefully removing a paronwith a crucial "if". Moreover, stock footage is played over the resulting audio clip, carefully concealing the distortion of facts upon the edits made by the China-owned news organization.

In the CCTV video [1], the quote from WHO Chief Scientist, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, was modified to apparently claim that China had already created a successful vaccine:

"... very active vaccine development programme and several of their vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of clinical trial so this is also of interest to us so we're following those very closely. Some of their candidates actually proved to be successful in the clinical trials that are going on"

The full quote of Dr. Swaminathan is preserved in the conference transcripts [2] and video [3] of the Sept 21 press conference. The parts edited out by CCTV makes it sound that the above italicized quote was not meant to be an assertive statement on its own:

"We've been engaged in discussions with China for the last several months because, as you know, they also have a very active vaccine development programme and several of their vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of clinical trial so this is also of interest to us so we're following those very closely. <b>We've had very constructive and open discussions with them and they have always been reiterating their commitment to global access if some of their candidates actually prove to be successful in the clinical trials that are going on."

Taken in its entirety, it is clear that Dr Swaminathan's statement was only acknowledging China's promise to share any vaccines that they might develop.

In other words, the edited CCTV video, as well as the reposts made by pro-Beijing pages, had deliberately modified the scientist's statement to make false claims of China's success, and is clearly an intentional attempt to mislead the public.

NOTES:
[1] CCTV News video:
https://www.facebook.com/761870613900500/posts/3972027886218074

[2] Transcript of WHO COVID-19 Virtual Press Conference, 21 September 2020:

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/transcripts/joint-covid-19-virtual-press-conference---21-september.pdf#page=16

[3] Video of press conference, beginning at Dr. Swaminathan's statement (0:42:44):

https://youtu.be/ia8DElK7SE4?t=2564

Source: FactCheck Lab, Hong Kong #30Sept2020 https://www.factchecklab.org/20200930/

#WuhanPneumonia #CoronavirusPandemic #Covid19Vaccine
#CCPLies #CCTV

=======

[Editor's Note:

As the WHO represents the world's concerted effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, such misleading reports only serves to undermine the organization's credibility and international cooperation. It is all the more despicable that it would come from a state-run media such as China's CCTV; such falsehood is an affront to any journalist's commitment to the pursuit of the truth, and ought to be widely condemned.]

The false video was first reported by Factcheck Lab on Sept 30, 2020.

Their original report in Chinese is attached as follows:

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
"China and Russia attempted to Undermine Cohesion in the West by sowing disinformation about on COVID-19 Vaccines and Cyber Attack," warns top UK general

The Chief of Defence Staff in the UK, Nick Carter, warned that Russia was attempting to undermine cohesion by sowing disinformation about on coronavirus vaccines on social media.

Carter said in an intelligence event yesterday (Sept 30) that Russia is exploiting strategic benefits by manipulating the information environment in this global pandemic crisis, including penetrating fake description in social media groups. He quote a case from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), which published a report in recent months, that a fake press release was circulating in mid-July about the US conducted vaccine trials on Ukrainian volunteers with death cases. This fake news was published in different countries and languages. The original source was believed having support from Russia authorities in order to stir up anti-American and anti-Ukrainian sentiments.

Carter said disinformation on the vaccine was an example of "digital authoritarianism", cooperating with Putin’s cyber and hacking attack. He also believes that a similar approach was adopted by China, where mass surveillance and "social credit scores" are being forged. Carter said Russia and China "see the strategic context as a continuous struggle in which non-military and military instruments are used unconstrained by any distinction between peace and war". "Their goal is to win without going to war: to achieve their objectives by breaking our willpower, using attacks below the threshold that would prompt a war-fighting response.", he added.

Source: The Stand News #Oct01

#China #Russia #UK #Australia #NickCarter #Putin #ASPI #CyberSecurity #Digitalauthoritarianism #Vaccine #FakeNews

https://bit.ly/3ndBdbq
#HongKongChronicles #CUHKSiege #History
When the Power Authorities Rewrite History: Police Claim They Have No Intention to Siege University in the Battle of CUHK

November 2020 marks the one-year mark of the two battles in the Chinese University of Hong Kong (#CUHK) and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (#PolyU) during the 2019 Anti-ELAB Movement.

As the authorities had notoriously altered the course of events during 7.21 Yuen Long Triad Attack, many were worried that the same would happen to more and more events in the city.

The Facebook page "No Stake Medical Student" refuted an interview with the police published by Ming Pao Daily point by point with news footages.

The following is a translation of this report by "No Stake Medical Student":

"Today, Ming Pao published a long piece of interview with police officer, with the alias 'X', who stated that the police had never intended to attack CUHK.

In turn, did the tear gas grenades that shown in photod fly to the university's stadium by themselves?

Officer X also claimed that “someone threw petrol bomb and it exploded right in front of the [university] president”.

To retort this with evidence: it was literally the Hong Kong Police Force who first shot tear gas grenades toward the university president Rocky Tuan Sung-chi on that day. After this, a petrol bomb was tossed. The protestors did not provoke the conflict aa it was depicted by officer X.

i-Cable News: "Rocky Tuan did not move forward anymore. Suddenly, the police shot at least two tear gas grenades. (A few seconds later), someone on the hillside threw back a molotov cocktail.

https://youtu.be/SNk9gWJWv58?t=42

The following video clips also recorded the police launching the siege by shooting tear gas grenades for no reason. The police were suspected to have been “attacked by laser gun”.

https://youtu.be/ditOvMqvZKU?t=108

https://youtu.be/bMN0YbVy2pk?t=96

The Ming Pao article also mentioned that “Dover urged to retreat”, “No death record because of the police was very restrained”. All are nothing but fallacy.

In face of rewriting history by the opponent, we can only rely on one and all to spread the truth.

By the way, all these police officer “X”, “Y” and “Z” are vividly proved to be false content, would Facebook make a clear tag as “misleading information”?

Related reports:
First Anniversary of University War, Police Officer: Never Intended To Break-in CUHK, It Was Just A False Proportion as Defense War
https://bit.ly/2GFAYFJ

Source: No Stake Medical Student #Nov9

https://www.facebook.com/nostakemedicalstudent/photos/a.140123600705521/416328729751672/?type=3

#RewritingHistory #FakeNews
Media is too big
VIEW IN TELEGRAM
#FactCheck Time - China's state broadcaster #CCTV has once again altered statements by #WHO, now claiming to have developed a successful COVID 19 vaccine. Beware of fake news!

Note: Apologies about the typo at 0:11, should be "claimed".

#GoHKVideo #FakeNews #COVID19 #CCPPropaganda
#FakeNews #WuhanPneumonia #Propaganda
Chinese Media Allegedly Use Hongkongers to convince Chinese Mainlanders to receive China-made COVID-19 Vaccine

Source: Cupid News
#Dec11

Read more
⬇️⬇️
#FakeNews #WuhanPneumonia
#Propaganda
Chinese Media Allegedly Use Hongkongers to convince Chinese Mainlanders to receive China-made COVID-19 Vaccine

Since Nov 29, 2020, multiple media in China have been reporting that “close to 90% of Hongkongers hope to receive COVID-19 vaccine developed by China”.

All these articles described that the number of cases are rising again in Hong Kong for unknown reasons. According to them, on Nov 29, 2020, a group called “COVID-19 Vaccination Concern Group” held a press conference and presented results of a poll that showed 96.9% of Hong Kongers "felt confident in COVID-19 vaccines developed by China", and 88.6% would like a shot.

It was also reported that the said Concern Group was founded by Beijing loyalists such as the self-proclaimed “flag bearer” Lam Wai-man. The poll was purportedly conducted from Nov 25 to 28 through an "online platform". Among the 8,189 participants, 7,820 were "Hong Kong local citizens", and 177 were residents of the Guangdong Province in China who held Hong Kong citizenship.

Source: Cupid News #Dec11
#CCPVaccine #CCPControl
#FakeNews #CCPLies #CCPControl
No ‘Negative’ News: How China Censored the Coronavirus

Source: New York Times #Dec16

Read more
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#FakeNews #CCPLies #CCPControl
No ‘Negative’ News: How China Censored the Coronavirus

In 2020, the whole world has been extensively affected by COVID-19, which was originally called "Wuhan Pneumonia" at the early stage of the outbreak because of its alleged origin. The pandemic has led to the lockdown of many countries, the suspension of economic activities and the separation of families.

In an investigative report published by The New York Times on Dec 19, 2020, it was revealed that the Chinese Communist Party government stage-managed what appeared online in the early days of the outbreak and downplayed the severity of the coronavirus.

The New York Times wrote,

“At a time when digital media is deepening social divides in Western democracies, China is manipulating online discourse to enforce the Communist Party’s consensus.

To stage-manage what appeared on the Chinese internet early this year, the authorities issued strict commands on the content and tone of news coverage, directed paid trolls to inundate social media with party-line blather and deployed security forces to muzzle unsanctioned voices."

For example, regarding the death of the whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang, who had been threatened and prosecuted by the Chinese authorities, on Feb 7, 2020, China "ordered news websites not to issue push notifications alerting readers to his death. They [Chinese authorities] told social platforms to gradually remove his name from trending topics pages. And they activated legions of fake online commenters to flood social sites with distracting chatter, stressing the need for discretion".

The New York Times also found that "Chinese officials tried to steer the narrative not only to prevent panic and debunk damaging falsehoods domestically. They also wanted to make the virus look less severe — and the authorities more capable — as the rest of the world was watching."

According to Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, and the founder of China Digital Times,

“China has a politically weaponized system of censorship; it is refined, organized, coordinated and supported by the state’s resources. It’s not just for deleting something. They also have a powerful apparatus to construct a narrative and aim it at any target with huge scale.”

“This is a huge thing,” he added. “No other country has that.”

Source: New York Times #Dec19

Read the original article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/technology/china-coronavirus-censorship.html

#CyberSpace #Xi #WaterArmy #WuhanPneumomia #Manipulation #COVID19 #Christmas2020
UK Revokes a China's Media CGTN Broadcasting license and Beijing Rebuts BBC as "Fake News”

China Global Television Network (CGTN), a subsidiary of China’s state-owned China Central Television, has been repeatedly questioned as biased. The Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the UK announced to revoke the local broadcasting license of CGTN today. On the other hand, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry criticized a BBC report from last month as fake news linking politics to the pandemic and asked for apologies.

Ofcom confirmed on Thursday after the investigation that Star China Media owned the broadcasting license of CGTN. However, this company has no right to control the editorial content of this station. Therefore, it does not meet the legal requirements for the license.

CGTN once requested to transfer the broadcasting license to a company called China Global Television Network Corporation. However, as the “important information” for the application is missing and the company are ultimately controlled by CCP, Ofcom refused the request for license transfer. Ofcom emphasized that they have already given enough chance to CGTN, but they still failed to comply with the law, so they decided to revoke its license.

Source: Stand News #Feb04

https://bit.ly/2OS5wIf

#China #Beijing #CGTN #CCTV #England #Britain #UK #BroadcastingLicense #BBC #FakeNews #CCP #Ofcom #License
#FakeNews #MadeinChina
#ChinaDaily Caught Promoting China with Stolen Photo of #Switzerland, After Criticizing Western Media's Credibility

Source: Twitter #May19

Read more
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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/29768
#FakeNews #MadeinChina
#ChinaDaily Caught Promoting China with Stolen Photo of #Switzerland, After Criticizing Western Media's Credibility

China Daily, China's state-owned newspaper, released a satirical cartoon via its Twitter account on May 10, 2021, suggesting that "western media lacks credibility".

The account subsequently shared a promotional video on sightseeing in China, which showed a natural landscape with the hashtag “#ChineGlamour”. However, German and French TV station #ARTE(Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne) discovered that the landscape image was taken by a travel blogger, and was in fact recorded in #Brienz, Switzerland. The image is then flipped horizontally, and the blogger's watermark cropped out.

The blogger criticised China Daily’s #plagiarism, and mocked them for promoting China with a stolen picture of Switzerland. China Daily had since deleted the video without apologies.

#IntellectualProperty #Originality #Credibility #Theft

Source: Twitter #May19
https://twitter.com/chinadaily/status/1391573916276039682?s=21
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10225478008796046&set=a.3424228683399&type=3
#FakeNews #PoliceState
Pro-Beijing media claim first aider shot by police in the eye in Hong Kong protests is “completely healthy”; HK Police refuses to comment

Source: Stand News #May25

Read more
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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/30083