Mixed Feelings

Earlier this week the government information office announced that seven TV stations had lost their licenses and had to stop broadcasting on Tuesday. The reasons given were that the programming was detrimental to society. I already had some mixed feelings because actually, some of the channels here are pretty bad. But on the other hand, the government deciding who does and doesn’t get a license leaves me a bit uneasy. It’s been 18 years since martial law, but it seems like authoritarian practices still lurk in the government.

I don’t watch a whole lot of TV here. Most of the time if I’m watching TV, it’s watching a DVD of an American TV show. When I actually watch something off cable it’s usually CNN. So it was only today that I had a chance to flip around the channels to see what’s changed. Now I have even more mixed feelings.

That’s because they’ve added some pretty interesting new channels. To top the list, there’s BBC World, with BBC News. Ah, lovely BBC. As well, Star World which shows American TV shows was moved from the obscure channel it sometimes appeared on to a lower channel, ABC (the Australian one, not the American one), Animax and Nickelodeon were all added to the lineup. Is it bad to be in favor of government repression just because you like the result?