"....do you believe everything you read in the paper?"

IF THE above masthead doesn't frighten you, it really should.

Unfortunately we wake up today to the horiffic news that the English language version of China Daily will henceforth be sold on shelves in the UK.

As of today, if you so wished, you could now go down to the newsagents, skip past The Guardian, ignore the poor old Independent, hurry quickly past The Sun and decide instead to read your news directly as the Communist Party of China gives it to you.




China Daily: Europe costs £2, has a print run of 25,000 in the UK

 and is on sale at a number of outlets, including WH Smith.

  So, should you decide to become a regular reader, what changes are you likely to see?

Well, for example, no longer will the Dalai Lama be known as 'Nobel Peace Prize Winner'. In this publication (available from all good newsagents!) he will be known as a 'terrorist'.

THIS is the official website of the publication, which as you will note neglects to mention anywhere either the ongoing crisis in Korea or the recent revelations about China from the Wikileaks documents.

As both of these stories are of massive importance to China and Europe, you would think that a newspaper calling itself 'China Daily Europe' would carry them.

But of course, China's newspapers are no ordinary publications.

In fact, as you would expect, the headlines are all unanimously positive about China:

China fueling European economic recovery!

Companies unfazed by new taxes!

Royal engagement excites Chinese!

Chopsticks becoming a popular gift!

Chinese train breaks speed record in trial use!

But does this matter? Afterall we have been able to read propaganda from all around the world for as long as it's been written, and many have been checking what news is being invented by Chinese State News online for years anyway.

I personally feel, however, that with this new step forward for Chinese media, we in England may be taking a giant leap backwards.

I have been shocked by those who are blaming the UK press for FIFA's decision not to award England the 2018 World Cup. Some seem to think that exposing corruption and operating a free press should be secondary to appeasing the bent FIFA executive committee members(!)

That a reminder of such media power by Sepp Blatter influenced them in their vote is a testament to the strength of our media. Friday's comments by The Sun writer Neil Custis on the free press should remind people of what is important: 

"We have a free press in this country" he said, "In Russia the 'free press' involves somebody who critiscises the regime, enters a lift and doesn't come out the other side."

Speaking about the controversy surrounding the failed bid, Custis added:

"I am proud in this country that we have a free press, I am proud that people like myself can speak like this, I am proud of what we've done in the papers this morning, critiscising this outrageous scandal."

So, how does picking up state-run Chinese propaganda at the local news stand fit into this free press that we supposedly have?

I understand the argument that if we stop publications such as this from being sold here, we too are controlling what the British people read. But I disagree.

There can be nothing gained from trusting the words printed by the Chinese government. Everything written within the pages of CDE will have been done so solely to benefit China through the manipulation of its readers.

This is not the media that England has grown to be proud of. This is not the type of material we should be educating our people with.

In short, for shops such as WHSmith to stock publications such as this is a disgrace.

If anyone is interested in what it's like to work in China at the China Daily, they would do well to read the following blog: http://leakingstatesecrets.blogspot.com/