China Again Bans Live U.S. TV Reports

To the dismay of American television networks, Chinese authorities reversed themselves Wednesday and again ended live telecasts from Beijing, giving no word on how long their reimposed ban would last.

In an odd turn of events, the video portion of a live CBS report from Beijing was halted and went off the air just after 11 a.m. EDT, when the new TV ban was to begin, while NBC was able to air without interruption a live TV report from the same city 53 minutes later.

Wednesday’s shutdown of the live CBS video during a special news report was later replayed on the “CBS Evening News.” The scene was similar to last Friday’s telecasts by CBS and CNN, when each obeyed government orders to shut off their portable satellite transmitters in Beijing and aired live pictures as they did so.

Some CBS officials were startled that NBC anchor Tom Brokaw was able to hold a live, televised conversation with correspondent George Lewis in Beijing after the government’s new deadline for getting off the air passed.

“I was amazed to see NBC still doing it after they (the Chinese) had clearly said everybody gets cut off at 11 a.m.,” said Lane Venardos, executive producer of special events coverage for CBS.

Executives at both networks were uncertain why NBC got its temporary reprieve.

Venardos said there are two state-run satellite link facilities in Beijing and theorized that authorities had shut them down at different times.

As to why the live, video portion of Beijing bureau chief John Sheahan talking on the telephone with CBS anchor Dan Rather in New York abruptly ended Wednesday morning, Venardos said that Chinese officials “pulled the plug.” The telephone connection, on a separate circuit, was unaffected.

NBC was able to get both Brokaw’s live talk with Lewis and taped footage beamed from Beijing without incident. The live transmission, routed via London, was on a British Broadcasting Corp. satellite on which NBC had booked five minutes of time, said Joseph Angotti, NBC’s senior vice president for special programming.

After his network finished, a German network, ABC and the BBC used the satellite, Angotti said, and “it was an hour or so after that” that Chinese officials posted written notices prohibiting further transmissions.

Some network officials were surprised by the new shutdown order, which came only a day after the lifting of what had been a three-day ban on satellite transmissions from Beijing of live reports and taped news footage.

Angotti, however, took it in stride. “We’re not startled by anything that happens over there anymore,” he said. “But when we were able to continue feeding (reports via satellite) after the deadline . . . we weren’t sure what to expect.”

Network correspondents in Beijing were notified of the impending new shutdown between 7 and 7:30 a.m. EDT, officials here said.

After it went into effect, the correspondents still were able to do live phone reports and ship out taped footage for satellite relay from Tokyo, Hong Kong, European cities and London, as they were during the previous ban.

The outlook for a lifting of the ban is “Who knows?” said CBS’ Venardos. He said he anticipates no problems returning to the system of taping reports in China and bringing them out by courier.

“But any of this could change at a moment’s notice, depending on the political situation,” he said. “There’s no real sense of high stability on that score.”