Deutsche Welle, 7 Jan 2013, Nadina Schwarzbeck: "With the introduction of a radio broadcaster, news agency, TV station and newspaper to the African market, the reach of Chinese media is rapidly expanding. Some say China aims to dominate the African media sector. In the first six months of 2012 alone, China invested $45 billion (34 billion euros) in Africa, while Sino-African trade has tripled in the last three years. Now, the Asian giant is seeking to make a name for itself in the African media sector by investing in modern technologies and giving scholarships to African journalists to work in China. ... Nairobi is the hub for East African media and Chinese media companies already have offices located there, for instance, state-run international broadcaster China Radio International, which broadcasts programs in over 50 foreign languages. The broadcaster has been in Kenya for seven years and what it does there was explained by one employee, who wished to remain anonymous, as China Radio journalists are not allowed to speak to Western media. 'We write stories in English and then we translate them into Swahili,' he told DW. 'At the moment, we do not transmit our stories live from Nairobi but we send them to Beijing, where our headquarters are. That is where they broadcast our stories.' ... He said the censorship of stories was another obstacle. 'We don't cover stories that are negative. But you see, in journalism, you have to report things as they are. Most of the time, things don't happen as you'd like them to happen. Positive stories don't always happen … we are very selective in our reporting.' He explained that the Chinese broadcaster wished to appeal to African listeners by only reporting on the positive sides of Africa."

Update: China Daily, 18 Jan 2013, Xiaoling Zhang: "Analysis of CCTV's hour-long program Africa Live ... serves as a platform for re-emphasizing China's critical stand on foreign intervention in African affairs, the need to reform international systems and the promotion of a positive image of China, while trying to win over African audiences from its Western competitors such as CNN and the BBC. ... China's media advance will not be without complications. It remains to be seen how locally employed media professionals negotiate their often Western-oriented understanding and practices of journalism within a Chinese state organization. ... With international viewers as their target, they challenge the longstanding Western monopoly on information, transmit a Chinese perspective on events and produce their own stories and images otherwise portrayed in a critical light by the Western media."

Al Jazeera English, 24 Jan 2013, Colin Shek: "'The Chinese media is much more visible now in Africa,' said Mary Harper, a veteran journalist who has been reporting on Africa for more than 20 years. 'Even though there have been Chinese media operations in Africa ever since I started working on the continent, I've noticed a really dramatic rise in their presence,' said Harper. ... Harper, too, said China's journalism about Africa has been portrayed in an 'over-simplistic' manner. 'There's a sort of myth that they only cover the positive stories about Africa. They don't ignore the big, bad news stories of the day. They might not cover them in great detail, but they do cover them, so they're not only presenting some story of Africa as if everything is perfect and happy there.'"

China Daily, 8 Jan 2013, Liu Xiangrui: "Pili Mwinyi Khamis works for China Radio International (CRI) and she is involved in the production of several programs, including the weekly China in My Eyes. ... Khamis has worked with CRI for more than five years, and before that she was both a teacher and broadcaster in Tanzania. After she was selected for the exchange program in China, Khamis was as anxious as she was excited. ... To Khamis, China was very different from what she had in mind, especially its degree of development. 'I found it's more like a developed country,' she says. Khamis began to love her job as a journalist here, which she believes helps her understand China better and faster. Her work takes her out of Beijing and around China. Last year, she had a chance to visit Ningxia Hui autonomous region, where she found herself surrounded by Muslims. 'I saw men wearing Muslim caps and women covering their heads. We had so much in common. It was like going back home,' says Khamis, impressed by the diversity of Chinese culture."