Little ears focus on mixed dish for access to satellite service

CHINA IS SENDING mixed signals to the broadcasting industry. While the mainland is opening its market as it prepares to join the World Trade Organisation, it is trying to tighten control over the broadcasting sector and ensure that programmes watched by local viewers do not stray too far from official taste.

Shanghai is shaping up as one of the key testing grounds for reaching those conflicting objectives. The authorities there, taking their cue from their agitated overseers in Beijing, have launched a fresh campaign to rid the city of illegal satellite dishes - known in Chinese as 'little ears'.

Shanghai's newspapers have proclaimed that illegal 'little ears' around the big eastern city will be removed and that the government will put an end to the illegal production, sale and installation of satellite equipment. City officials have also pledged to ensure that cable TV systems do not deliver unauthorised foreign programmes.

There is good reason for making this an issue in Shanghai, a relatively affluent city of about 16 million people. Just gaze out a window above ground level and the popularity of the 'little ears' is all too obvious. There has been no attempt to explain precisely why the 'little ears' have to go, other than the all-too-familiar mantra that they are illegal.

Officials at the local broadcasting authority were happy to confirm they were acting under an 'emergency order' for the removal of all satellite dishes used by individuals and from those residential or office buildings that did not have official permission.

The same officials were somewhat less than forthcoming when asked about the reason for the latest directive.