China’s State-Run Central Television Slammed for Plagiarizing a Photographer’s Work · Global Voices
One of the shots taken from <PERSON> Starry Tibet in CCTV's program. Screenshot from <PERSON>'s Weibo post.
China Central Television (CCTV) has been slammed for plagiarism of a freelance photographer's work and for its arrogant response to criticism. This isn't the first time that the state-run CCTV has plagiarized ideas or others’ work in its programs. Instead of looking into the allegations, CCTV has told the police to investigate the photographer for scams, and domestic reports on the plagiarism dispute have been censored and taken offline.
On September 10, <PERSON>, a freelance photographer in Wuhan, Hubei province, claimed on Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) that his time-lapse photography work had been plagiarized by CCTV’s program The Beautiful Villages in China, “without his authorization.”
<PERSON> quickly reached out to CCTV, but was frustrated with their response. Someone who claimed to be a “CCTV intern” beat about the bush on the phone, avoiding a direct response to his demand to reach the person in charge of the program. 341
The “intern” even rebutted with “So what if CCTV uses your work [without your authorization], do you think that's wrong?”
<PERSON> recorded the phone conversation and embedded it in a blog post, explaining to the readers that the CCTV program plagiarized his time-lapse photography work, Starry Tibet, which was filmed in four different locations in Tibet in 2013. The challenging photos, which took him many days to shoot, were taken in adverse weather conditions and at an altitude of 5,000 meters.
According to <PERSON>'s own description:
但是我想说的是，我的素材都是拼了命吃了苦拍来的。而且在西藏一年时间，身体已经被搞垮了。最后却得到中国官方中央电视台这样的回应。我非常的伤心难过。
What I want to say is that my work cost me a lot of effort. My health was damaged during the year in Tibet. And now, China’s official CCTV has given me such a response, which makes me extremely sad.
After <PERSON>’s phone negotiations, CCTV changed its contact details from a phone number to an e-mail address on the program's official website.
Instead of justice, intimidation
Later on the same day, <PERSON> said on his Weibo that he was being intimidated by CCTV staff, who claimed they would go to the Hubei police and ask them to investigate him for a suspected “scam.” His demand for compensation of 250,000 yuan was also rejected.
更新一下进展。今天上午，我和栏目通话，要求他们赔偿我素材使用费25000元，但是他们不是很愿意，并劝我不要把事情闹大，不然以后没法继续和央视合作了，但是他们不愿意而且告知会通知我湖北襄阳当地公安局调查我，是不是诈骗。。。。。
Update on the development. This morning, I talked to the program staff and demanded RMB25,000 yuan (approximately US$3920 dollars) as a copyright fee. But they were not willing to do so and persuaded me not to publicize the dispute or else I could no longer work with CCTV in the future. 368