News stories translated to become pro-China
to the percentage chance of an expected number of aftershocks of certain magnitudes over different periods.
Becker said it was great New Zealand had blazed a trail in this field and also ‘‘greatly encouraging’’ overseas organisations were showing such interest.
‘‘It is really awesome. The USGS are probably advancing this now in a slightly different way that we can then learn from.’’
A recent study of how well aftershock details and forecasts were communicated to the public and agencies in Canterbury found a range of information was required for different audiences.
The paper, in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, said it was ‘‘imperative’’ geoscientists worked out how they would provide this information before a significant quake – or volcanic eruption or catastrophic flooding – occurred.
Becker, the lead author, told The Press the study involved 55 participants, including members of the public, the media, and staff from agencies closely involved with quake response and recovery, such as engineers, elected officials and insurance experts.
‘‘So were forecasts a good idea? On the whole, most people agreed it was important to have forecasts, whether they were working in a role that required that information or not.
‘‘After Kaiko¯ ura, some of the anecdotal evidence was people found the forecasts reassuring. They liked to see the numbers going down and playing out.
‘‘If you deliver these in a way that people understand and can apply to their own lives, I think they are really useful.
‘‘[But] there’s always going to be a proportion of the population who are scared and don’t want to engage with it at all,’’ she said. The Chinese edition of the NZ Herald edited translated articles from the NZ Herald to put a better light on the Chinese government.
It has also omitted articles entirely that discuss the Chinese Government in a negative way, in one case taking a much more sanitised version from a Chinese wire service.
The Chinese NZ Herald is the result of a 2016 joint venture between NZME, which own the NZ Herald, and longrunning Chinese publication The Chinese Herald. The website and WeChat channel, which use the NZ Herald branding, feature both translated pieces from the Englishlanguage Herald, articles from the Chinese Herald, and stories from other Chinese news sources.
But several pieces translated for the website omit information that would make the Chinese government uncomfortable.
One 2017 NZ Herald article about a Chinese pensioner being robbed featured three paragraphs about the fact the pensioner was a Falun Gong refugee, escaping persecution from the Chinese government in New Zealand. These paragraphs did not feature in the translated version of the story.
Another 2017 article concerning scholar Anne-Marie Brady’s research on alleged Chinese political operations within New Zealand was translated with several quotes from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Brady omitted.
Despite extensive reporting by the English language NZ Herald on the Brady paper and the subsequent break-in to her home almost none of this reporting was translated for the Chinese NZ Herald.
‘‘If you deliver these in a way that people understand . . . I think they are really useful.’’