Why are other threads on the China earthquake being closed down almost as soon as they start up?

This thread - to which all are referred subsequently - contains mainly copied newswire reports and images (presumably with the correct permissions from the copyright owners). Clearly others are being put off from posting stuff.

Furthermore, when the other threads are locked, it is not possible to comment on specific aspects of that post.

I think these locked posts shold be unlocked.

The China earthquake covers a huge area and many different aspects are of concern to GE users, and so they should not be pigeon-holed into one bulk thread dominated by newswire stories.