Reuters: China Launches Satellite Clampdown After Pirate Broadcasts (Photo)

By John Ruwitch

September 5, 2002

China launches satellite clampdown after pirate broadcasts - A woman and child cycle past a satellite dish in Beijing in July. China said on September 5 it is clamping down on satellite transmissions after a number of pirate broadcasts. REUTERS/Guang Niu

á

China has launched a nationwide clampdown on satellite networks in the wake of a string of pirate broadcasts on state television by the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, state media said on Thursday. The campaign, ordered by the Ministry of Information Industry, aimed to curb the illegal use of satellite broadcasting equipment [...] the official Xinhua news agency said.

Although the report did not mention Falun Gong, the orders come roughly one week after the [Falun Gong practitioners] hijacked a network in a city near Beijing and aired 70 minutes of [material revealing the truth about Falun Gong and its persecution in China].

[...]

Falun Gong's U.S.-based information centre said in a statement the group's adherents had [pre-empted] airwaves on August 23 and 27 in the Hebei province city of Baoding.

Television station officials and police in Baoding denied the incident had happened. "Such things could never have happened here," one television official said.

But a police official in neighbouring Xushui county, about 130 km south of Beijing, said that he had heard of the illegal broadcasts, that at least five Falun Gong followers had been arrested and that security had been heightened in the area.

HAPPENED ELSEWHERE

The broadcasts, the latest in a string of high-tech stunts in a propaganda blitz by the group, come at a highly sensitive time before a pivotal Communist Party Congress due to start on November 8.

But to the embarrassment of the government, Falun Gong members have tapped into cable channels in other Chinese cities several times, and from July 23-30 interrupted satellite transmissions, upping the technological ante in a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities.

With the party congress, at which a reshuffle of the top leadership is expected, just two months away, China is tightening its grip on media organizations to ensure the meeting goes off without a hitch.

A source at China Central Television told Reuters the state television network had tightened security to prevent similar Falun Gong [action in the future].

"Incidents like programmes being [pre-empted] have happened mostly in remote areas. But there are fears that the same could happen on CCTV," the source said.

CCTV had installed steel gates at each of its two entrances to prevent vehicles from forcing their way through and had stepped up checks of people and vehicles entering the grounds, he said.

[...]

Falun Gong says as many as 1,600 followers have been killed in a crackdown since the movement was outlawed in 1999 [...]

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version