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I wanted to welcome Harry Chen PhD to #QOTO his account is @HarryChenPhD
He lives in China, and from what I can tell is currently living in Wuhan, the epicenter of the #coronavirus where he posts videos updating us all on the situation. He labels himself as a "renegade journalist".
He was recently banned from twitter because, well, China doesnt really like renegades or journalists. So we are proud to act as a platform to help him host his videos and get the word out on how things develop. Consider following him.
You can read a bit about how twitter oppressed his freedom of speech and what ultimately brought him to the fediverse at these two links:
https://reclaimthenet.org/twitter-suspends-harry-chen-phd-cornavirus/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/f938j3/twitter_suspends_harry_chen_phd_known_for/
#Wuhan #CoronaVirus #FF #FollowFriday #China #Journalism #Journalist
Not even sure what that means. Its mostly just posts of videos by the look of it. Anything "anti-china" about it seems to mostly just be honesty around their practices (manipulation and dishonesty) to their citizens.
Ahh yes, I agree, I was skeptical of that wording as well. But when I pressed him he basically just said "well they arent telling us what is int he disinfectant".. which is kinda fair, I lived in china I think id be constantly scared of them slipping something in the chemicals they spray me with too.
In the end when I pressed him though his responses sounded rational enough. Could also just be a language barrier thing.
Why not ask him about it?
From what I can see so far it does seem like just biased opinion if not agenda. Not what I would expect from a journalist, renegade or not.
In my opinion a journalist shouldn't just sit back and complain that the government doesn't go out of its way to do their job for them. A journalist will go and ask the driver what they are spraying, then go inquire in local government building/unit/whatever, maybe even take a sample and take it to a lab(or closest renegade equivalent) for examination. Report on all of that exactly, and then maybe express an opinion under a disclaimer.
Not saying there is anything wrong with expressing an opinion (even if biased), just scrutinizing the "renegade journalist".
Fair criticism and all.
Though to be fair your basically saying "Why didnt you do more and get arrested"... Well if he actually followed your advice we would never hear from him again as he would be locked away against his will.
Im not sure you realize how risky it is for him to do even this much.
hmmm, I don't think anything I said can be used as an excuse for an arrest, I didn't mean to suggest to snoop out evidence with any means necessary. If the government stands on the way, reporting on that would be enough. Are police battalions escorting the workers not letting anyone close? Do the workers refuse to talk?
If it's about evil government abusing power to arrest people they don't like, even without an excuse, then actively speaking against said government is more dangerous in my opinion, than unopinionated journalism. None of those things require anti-government rhetoric, they can even be framed as pro-governmant - "look at the amazing technology and state of the art chemistry out government deployed!".
An analogy would be firefighting equipment or even police arsenal. I can't see why would the government go out of it's way to publish a thorough explanation on the technology used up to the chemical composition. On the other hand it would be totally normal for a journalist to do that. Nothing incriminating or out of ordinary there.
That said I don't know what the situation is in the quarantine(or the evil China in general), so maybe there is something I'm missing. I'm as usual out of touch.
Umm I dont think you know china then... Yes what you suggest will almost certainly wind up in an arrest. They do **not** have any measure of freedom of speech there. By accusing the government of wrong doing in any sense you will get arrested presuming that accusation is loud enough that they care.
I think you forget, the videos he is posting here even without any details already got him in trouble. The chinese government told twitter to ban him and they did. Could you imagine how much more trouble he would get in if he actually did what a real journalist would do and ask questions and probe deeper....
Sure I know nothing, but I don't understand your logic either... I'm saying "you don't have to accuse the government, you can just report on facts", and you are arguing that "accusing the government will get you arrested".
If what is posted here is the same as what was posted on twitter, you can't claim that it was the videos alone, they are clearly accompanied with anti-government rhetoric, which according to you is more than enough to warrant an arrest, not just a ban. There is also one pointless video of street violence, which might be against terms of service there.
I really don't see how trying to ask a couple of questions to the operator of the spray (after their shift even), or a visit to local government office in good faith, will put you on the radar of the evil government anymore than what @HarryChenPhD and anyone else involved are already doing there.
Let me rephrase.. reporting on fact that people ould or would use to accuse the government will get you arrested...
In other words, the chinese government is very strict on wanting to be able to review what "facts" yu have and ensure only facts that are favorable to them are released.
So in the end it means the same thing in this context.
I really just think you underestimate how easily you can be put ont he radar.
Again he already is on the radar, he didnt even ask those questions and the chinese government already stepped in to silence him. So if you think his current videos lack "facts" could you imagine how they would respond if it had any real hard hitting facts in it?
Then ask Harry, he is the one living it... Seems to me he agrees with me that it would likely wind him in jail if he did.
@freemo
I don't underestimate the radar, I actually accepted everything you claimed about evil government and their super sensitive radar as truth for the purposes of this discussion. Just as the government is able to silence or arrest, they are also able to refute any facts presented, it's not exactly a mathematical proof. Government can not filter/alter the presentation of entities that do not wish to cooperate, they can only silence those. This case hardly looks like cooperation in fear of retaliation.
You're not addressing my main point of how openly speaking against the government is any safer than a simple "hey fine worker of our glorious empire, what great deeds are you up to today?" in this context.
@HarryChenPhD @elia