CNN's live segment on Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis star who recently disappeared after making sexual assault claims against a former Chinese official, was censored in China Monday.
"I want to explain to our viewers what's happing on our screen right now," CNN’s “New Day” host John Berman said on Monday.
"They can see an actual live feed of this broadcast in China, but it's all color bars and it went to color bars the minute you started talking," Berman said to network correspondent Will Ripley.
"I've lost count the number of times over the last eight years in Asia covering China, of how many times CNN's coverage of controversial issues has been censored," Ripley replied. "It used to go to straight black, now they've upgraded and went to color bars, but nonetheless it is a live real-time example of the censorship that's happening in the mainland."
Peng seemed to disappear after making the accusation earlier this month, prompting calls of concern from the Women’s Tennis Association and the International Olympic Committee. She eventually reappeared in a video call to the IOC, but the WTA said on Monday that the call did not completely address the concerns.
"They scrub Peng Shuai from the internet," Ripley said on Monday. "They're certainly not talking about this on television and even international networks, they have an army of censors, waiting to push that button the minute we start talking about this story."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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