Voice of truth in China silenced

New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) 22 July 2008
PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Voice of truth in China silenced

Evidence suggests New Tang Dynasty Television's signal was cut after European satellite company, Eutelsat, succumbed to Chinese pressure

Recordings obtained indicate that Eutelsat CEO Giulano Berratta intentionally cut New Tang Dynasty Television's (NTDTV) transmission signal into China in order to further business prospects with the Chinese regime. NTDTV is the only free and uncensored news source to mainland Chinese people and reports extensively on human rights issues in China.

Without warning, Eutelsat cut transmission on 16 June and told NTDTV it was due to a “power anomaly”. Evidence suggests otherwise.

RECORDED EVIDENCE: www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27818

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) recorded a conversation with an employee of Eulesat that directly implicates Giuliano Berretta in a move that breaches the convention under which Eutelsat operates and
violates the free flow of information.

Eutelsat employee: “It was our company’s CEO in France who decided to stop NTDTV’s signal. (...)We could have turned off any of the transponders. (...) It was because we got repeated complaints and reminder from the Chinese government. (...)”

RECORDED EVIDENCE: www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/
Chinese ambassador to Italy, Sun Yuxi, admits political pressure behind Eutelsat's action in a recording obtained by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) on July 17.

Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi: “Once he switched off [the signal]—he especially did this for us—he had people tell my technical support staff to pass the news onto me, the Ambassador, that the issue the Ambassador has spoken with us multiple times has already been taken care of. They said that this… and anything of Falun Gong will never be presented again."

Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi: "We also expressed our encouragement to them. [We said that] from now on, don't stick with that side; you should collaborate with us. You also should propagandise China from a positive perspective. They also repeatedly apologized, promising to never allow anything like this to happen again."

Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi: “They want to develop collaboration with China Central Television (CCTV). In addition to this, they want to discuss collaboration with our aviation industry regarding some European satellite, some meteorological satellite. They want to borrow our carrier to launch their satellites.”

Background:

Head-quartered in New York, NTDTV began broadcasting into China in 2004 and is the only uncensored Chinese-language TV channel that Chinese people rely on as their free alternative to state-controlled TV. NTDTV covers a lot of human rights issues, including the repression in Tibet, the persecution of Falun Gong, underground Christian churches, dissidents and human right advocates.

ENDS

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