AC360° Censored In China

Anderson Cooper Censored In China: CNN Report On Chen Guangcheng Blocked (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post | By Katherine Fung

Posted: 05/ 3/2012 -- 3:58 pm
Updated: 05/ 3/2012 -- 4:40 pm

Anderson Cooper's report about Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident who escaped house arrest, was censored in China on Thurday.

Guangcheng sought protection at a U.S. embassy with the help of American diplomats, and later went to a hospital. He said that officials backed out on their promise to stay with him, and has appealed to the U.S. for help. The activist is at the heart of diplomatic tug-of-war between China and the U.S.

Cooper reported the story from New York on Wednesday night. His show was airing on CNN International in China at the same time. Foreign correspondents were filling him in on the situation via satellite when he revealed that the segment had just been cut off in China.

"They just blocked our broadcast on CNN international right now as we are speaking," Cooper said. "So clearly this is a very sensitive issue they don't want people to know about."

His note comes at the 3:45 mark in the video above. The Committee to Protect Journalists has spoken out against the censorship surrounding reports on Guangcheng.

CNN has been blocked in China before, according to a spokesperson for the network. She told The Huffington Post on Thursday, "They do pull us down usually around critical reporting."

She said that the last two incidents were Christiane Amanpour's interview with dissident Ai Wei Wei in 2010, and the network's reporting on the 20th anniversary of Tianamen Square in 2009.