China censors World Cup to avoid showing fans not wearing face masks
Chinese football fans have been streamed a censored feed of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as politicians desperately try to stop images of large, unmasked crowds reaching the local population as protests rage against harsh Covid measures.
FIFA has tightly controlled the vision shown from the World Cup and every nation gets the same feed – except China.
A comparison of footage from the Cup shows that the China Central Television (CCTV) broadcasting company has been intercepting vision from the tournament and doctoring crowd shots by using a 30-second delay.
Vision showing maskless fans has been removed because while most of the world has moved on from pandemic lockdown measures, China still faces harsh restrictions under its Covid Zero policy.
Some regions of the People’s Republic of China are still in lockdown, Chinese residents have been forced to take Covid tests every day, and large street protests have erupted with demonstrators calling for politicians to resign.
Covid Zero, the strict policy enacted by China president Xi Jinping, has been widely criticised with a record number of cases nationwide, as the virus surges.
Civil disobedience has increased across the country, including passive protests and outright opposition to the Communist Party, Jinping and the controversial policy.
Former Sky Sports, Fox Sports and AP Sports employee Mark Dreyer created China Sports Insider in 2013 and he has also pointed out the censored vision on Twitter.
