Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Government Takes Down Anti-Pollution Documentary "Under The Dome"
An anonymous reader writes with a link to BBC's report that [A]uthorities in China have removed from websites a popular documentary which highlights the country's severe pollution problem. Under the Dome explains the social and health costs of pollution, and was watched by more than 100 million people online, sparking debates. It was removed just two days after Premier Li Keqiang called pollution a blight on people's lives.
Searching YouTube gives you a pretty good idea of what the Chinese government doesn't want people to see.
I guess there's so much smog that even links can't be seen.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I guess a link is too much to ask?
I wish I could.
http://m.bbc.com/news/world-as...
...these gloomy documentaries aren't helping the cause...
Yes they do... They motivate people to demand action to clean up, and to remind them we can have nice things and a clean planet. The 'dark shadow' over the government is well deserved when it doesn't respond. I find your response highly suspect.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Are you high? Of course it's censorship. A textbook example of it, in fact. Whatever the rationale might be for it does not alter that fact.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
arguing about an actual example of free speech being suppressed by a government. Oh it's not about something outrageous they said, stay edgy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
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In a previous story on this documentary, I read that a number of national news sources were promoting the film. So what changed that they would take it down now?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
when i searched i kept getting links to some stupid escape media tv serial out of the blighted states.
says a lot, really, the things our resepective cultures prefer.
No i think its actually the pollution that is casting a dark shadow over china.
Observe the little documentary casting a shadow over big China.
Your censorship apologia would sweep away all things gloomy: fellow citizens, think positive! (or else)
damaged by dogma
they just cast a dark shadow over China and its government.
Spot the Chinese government shill.
Something is casting a dark shadow over China and its government, and it's not these documentaries.
And besides, if making the government look like a bunch of greedy, incompetent, immoral, selfish evil assholes (WHICH THEY ARE) is something these documentaries accomplish, then all the better, because your country's excrement is starting to affect the entire planet. If this does even a little bit to help spur the world into action against you, it's a blessing.
Stop lying to yourself, and to others. Stop excusing and defending abhorrent behavior.
Look up what the word "integrity" means.
"Where there's smoke there's work."
--
BMO
An anonymous reader writes with a link
...that he's apparently unwilling to share with the rest of us. Thanks!
Searching YouTube
Searching YouTube? How about acting like a professional news site instead, and providing a simple, clickable, link?
Did Tim Berners-Lee die in vain?!
I expect a news story, not homework and a test. Yes, I'm lazy. That's why I visit news sites in the first place instead of roaming the world to see things first hand.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The documentaries should instead let people know what the government is doing
Documentaries should document. Ideally a documentary is completely objective, only observing, allowing the viewer to reach their own conclusions. What you describe is propaganda.
Its kinda of bollocks though, in that this isn't something invisible people can stick their heads out the window and not see more than 100m due to the smog in some cities. Or the sludge in the rivers...
I watched the document earlier today. It's not gloomy. It has a very clear call to action with many realistic ideas of how to combat pollution. Actually watching it made me think that maybe China can get this pollution situation fixed some day.
Maybe you should watch it too?
"There's a BBC story about Chinese censorship, you should google it" is pretty poor reporting, even for you.
"I cut up a lemon and put it beside my pillow. When I returned to Beijing, I discovered I was pregnant."
Now that is serious pollution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
It's one thing to see smog out the window day after day, it's another to find out how widespread the pollution is, or to see green beaches, exploded trees, and river water so polluted that it doesn't look like water. The U.S. would be where China is right now were it not for the people who raised enough hell fifty years ago that we have the EPA today.
they just cast a dark shadow over China and its government.
How can they tell?
You're shit at "spotting," and you seem paranoid.
I vehemently disagree. I highly recommend taking the 16 minutes and 39 seconds to actually watch the most compelling part of the documentary before trying to wave it away as "gloomy documentaries." For you to say such a thing shows that, contrary to your statement, you are denying the presence of pollution--or at least the social responsibility we all have to improve our health, life spans, and quality of life by regulating pollution.
I live in Washington DC and spend a great deal of time worrying about my health and the health of my children because our air quality here can get so bad that we have Red Ozone Days where we are told to keep our children inside, especially if they have any respiratory conditions, which they are more likely to have thanks to the poor air quality. I think it a blessing that NASA and the EPA monitor our air quality and that the local papers light a fire of panic under everyone's feet about the need to improve it because childhood leukemia and other cancers aren't something we should just shrug at.
Awareness of pollution is why we have Catalytic converters in our cars to dramatically reduce the toxic nature of the exhaust coming out of them. It's why we banned Lead Gasoline and ended the crime wave having that chemical in our brains unleashed on our culture. It's why air quality has improved over the last 10 years as new technologies, improved MPG, and other environmental regulations, but we still have much more to do.
It's also a moral issue for us, because our Made-In-China marketplace is why they have so much pollution. We want cheap goods and they turn a blind eye to the pollution to keep the products cheap. But that pollution is making it's way back to us over the Pacific Ocean. I want to keep buying cheap stuff from China, but I am also willing to pay a little more if it allows the Chinese people to improve their health.
The Chinese government should let people understand the science and choose for themselves.
i ~ Celebrating Science, Cyberspace, Speculation
don't look now, but you've got the 50 cent brigade after you...
As if the government and its industries had no idea pollution was getting worse over time. They KNEW and did not care. Now that enough people are complaining and seeing it, they are suddenly the good guys by coming up with a plan on paper? You sound like my kids or basically a majority of millennials I've had the pleasure of working with over the years. They decide they want to get a better job or a job and suddenly that is enough to give them a good feeling about themselves without actually doing anything other then talking about it. As if you are supposed to be proud of them because they decide it's time to step up and support themselves or make themselves better and "plan" for the future. That concept is something they were told since early in junoir high or high school, not 1-4 years AFTER it. Then they might take it to the next step and "apply" for a job by filling out online applications and possibly sending a resume. They feel better again because hey, they are looking, they tried, they gave it their full effort and are doing something. It's not their fault no one is calling them back. Heaven forbid them having to follow up on the application, going to the business and handing someone the resume if possible and finding anything and everything they can about the company. Until they are motivated to actually go through the whole process and actually GET that job and report their first day, they don't have it. That is when I give them the congrats for a job well done.
Nothing different here with the Chinese pollution and the solutions to it.
these gloomy documentaries aren't helping the cause
Censorship precisely is the banning of materials that don't help one's cause. What you're really arguing is that censorship is justified in this case because if people saw the documentary they would be unhappy and want there to be changes, which would be a problem for China's government. I don't find that argument compelling, though I imagine that people working in China's government would.
Zontar didn't say anything about propaganda. Does your boss know how much maotai you had before you came to work today?
Like hiding your head in the sand, eh? I'd like to introduce you to India, but they'd probably rape you.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
It is well-known that the government is still very unwilling to touch the heavy industries that pollute the most, especially in cities where there is just one employer. They're also very hesitant to bring polluters to justice, even if they pour poison freely into the river that supplies the city next door with drinking water.
It's high time Chinese folks understood that pollution is not a natural occurrence that cannot be prevented, but occurs because the cost of doing business is paid out of their health.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
Tricky thing though. How can you censor information about pollution from people who wear masks daily because of pollution. So likely it is more about repackaging and delivery at a more controllable pace to prevent mob reaction as they have quite a large mob to deal with. What is interesting in the documentary is the denial, they know the problem, they can not really pretend that it is not happening. However they live in denial preferring a comfortable lie, rather than an uncomfortable truth. How will they react, when the truth is forced on them, in the typical mob way? Seek a culprit or group of culprits to blame for everything, persecute them and then, once sufficient time has passed, months, go back to denial and the comfortable lie. That is the self evident truth of people who run around everyday needing to wear masks to breath without coughing because of pollution wanting to pretend the pollution is not that bad. You can not censor what people already know, just refuse to admit it because it might economically disadvantage them even when the reality is failing to act is going to not only hugely shorten the life but inevitably will hugely economically disadvantage them. The real problem is greed driven stupidity, most of the pollution is because they are too cheap to spend the extra money to reduce the level of pollution being generated and they all know it and participate in it and there is now way anyone could even try to censor that from them, their own individual greed lets them self censor and that is the real problem. Oh Look, America and climate change, there is a whole lot of that exact same greed driven stupidity and self censorship going on. You do censor information from those who choose to be ignorant, they do it to themselves and often scream at you and attack you if you try to expose them to the uncomfortable truth.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Watched the whole thing. Excellent. Informative, well made.
I can see the government doesn't like "the people" agitating on their own.
Are you high? Of course it's censorship. A textbook example of it, in fact. Whatever the rationale might be for it does not alter that fact.
Let this be a reminder to every slashdotter that the USA isn't such a terrible place after all.
China is America at the height of the industrial revolution.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
As long as it isn't you.
I thought this was about Stephen King's novel and television/TV s(eries/how). :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
In America, certain people are trying to censor our own flag...
The documentaries should instead let people know what the government is doing...
You are free to write one yourself. You have no right to tell other people they can't just because you don't like the content. Your posts appear to be very suspiciously like ones of a government 'employee', very likely in in their public relations department. There is no other logic behind them.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Are you high? Of course it's censorship. A textbook example of it, in fact. Whatever the rationale might be for it does not alter that fact.
It is censorship, but it isn't necessarily bad. The populations in most democratic societies are conditioned to see censorship as bad for obvious reasons, but we still allow certain restrictions on information, and more may be good. The entire structure of American elections is fundamentally unhealthy because of communication strategies that focus on *not* engaging the issues, for example, and it may be that some restrictions on free speech are essential even for a functioning democracy to govern effectively.
Suppose they make something available in libraries but not on youtube, for example, because it has a major net negative effect on the economy or the education level of the population.
Are you high? Of course it's censorship. A textbook example of it, in fact. Whatever the rationale might be for it does not alter that fact.
Let this be a reminder to every slashdotter that the USA isn't such a terrible place after all.
I'm pretty sure the poster you quoted lives in Europe. :)
It is censorship, but it isn't necessarily bad.
It is none of:
1. National defense
2. Someone's private info
3. Somebody trying to shout "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre when there is none
So, yes, it IS necessarily bad.
please bookmark this youtube video.
of course pollution sucks. it also sucks that people xont care much for where electricity comes from.
i have the suspicion that this is a propaganda video of the nuclear industry to push more "clean" energy onto the world.
so in 20 years you can revisit the bookmarked video when the first nuclear reactor goes liquid under a healthy blue sky in china...
every damn new building roof should be covered with pv panels or not get a building permit!
Yeah not shill, the proper term is 'running dog'. How about that one?
Yep, you are definitely working in a government's 'public relations' department. Censorship is always bad, regardless of the culture. Nobody has the right to decide what others can see and say. I am for anything that forces a government to respond to its citizens. And this kind of reporting makes them respond faster, which is a good thing. It helps people see through the facade, and it exposes who the government serves. This helps to motivate them to fix their government. We are on one planet. The pollution does not respect your borders. If it did, nobody would care if the Chinese suffocated themselves in their smog. The propaganda you post here is written by the bad guys and is nothing but a blatant appeal to authority. You can't hide that fact behind the AC moniker.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”