Rally at Eutelsat Headquarters

CHAN:
On Wednesday NTD supporters protested at Eutelsat's headquarters in Paris. They're calling on the satellite company to resume the broadcast to the mainland China. Here's more  on this story.

STORY:
The protesters outside Eutelsat headquarters accuse the satellite company of cutting NTD's broadcast to secure commercial contracts with the Chinese communist regime.

[Joe Wang, NTD Spokesperson]:
"This is another proof that the Chinese communist regime is never going to be trusted. They promised freedom for the press, for the Internet, and they did the opposite. Nowadays, with the Olympics coming soon, they actually intensified the crackdowns of the Falun Gong practitioners and the Tibetan people and whoever they think they want to crack down, they will do so. So there is no freedom in China at all."

Reporters Without Borders representative Vincent Brossel attended the demonstration. He says Eutelsat's decision is another example of how international companies have to make concessions in order to do business in China.

[Vincent Brossel, Reporters Without Borders]:
"Yes, this is another example, it's not the only one. There are many companies, American and European, that have gone astray in China: Yahoo, Cisco... who have collaborated in a way to the system of repression. Here it's a French company, Eutelsat, who is supposed to broadcast content in all the
countries around the world, in an independent way. So by suspending NTDTV, they are pleasing the Chinese government in order to obtain more contracts. So it's an unfortunate choice and that's why we are fighting for this channel."

Eutelsat was not available for comment on the matter.

Category:

News & Politics

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