Just say NO, NO, NO, NO

I was delighted to learn this morning that it's not just us griping laowai who feel that Chinese television sucks lemons. A group of Chinese intellectuals has just launched a campaign to boycott the state TV station, China Central Television (CCTV), on the grounds not just that it is CRAP, but also that it is relentlessly propagandizing (and not only in its news coverage, but in just about all of its programming - especially its historical drama series).

They propose a 'Four Noes' policy: participants will refuse to watch CCTV any more, or to listen to it, appear on it, or even talk about it. (Hmm, seems to me they might be leaving themselves a window to contribute soundbites to it, though....) From now on, they will behave as though CCTV did not exist. And they encourage the rest of us to do likewise.

Brothers and sisters, are you with me?

I picked up the story from Taiwan's Straits Times, via UCLA's Asia Media project.

Not surprisingly, several of the movers behind this boycott proposal were also early signatories of Charter O8, a document calling for comprehensive reforms of the Chinese political system which was released in early December. (Reaction in China so far has been covered by The Peking Duck and Granite Studio. And welcome newcomer to the China blog scene ULN has discovered some very useful links to full texts of the document, including English and French translations - the only ones that are not [yet] very heavily blocked within China.)