(Clearwisdom.net) On August 22, Italy's largest daily newspaper, Corriere Della Sera, published Nino Luca's article entitled "The Chinese Free Voice NTDTV Canceled, the EU Questions Eutelsat."
The article said that, since June 16, the NTDTV broadcast signal to Asia has been suspended. For nearly three months, NTDTV broadcasts of uncensored news have not been seen in Asia. It is believed that, through its ambassador to Italy, the Chinese Communist regime pressured Eutelsat to cancel these broadcasts. The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) and Reporters Without Borders provided evidence of telephone conversation recordings to support this conclusion.
The article included quotes from the transcript of the recorded conversation. On July 16, Sun Yuxi, the Chinese Ambassador to Italy, admitted in that conversation that he had exerted pressure on Eutelsat and asked that the NTDTV signal be cut off. NTDTV is headquartered in New York and has reporters in major cities throughout Europe.
The article also said that, according to the evidence from WOIPFG, pressure from the China's ambassador resulted in interruption of NTDTV broadcasting since June 16. The signal can no longer be received in most of the Asian region. Over two million Chinese can no longer watch the programs they have followed for over four years.
Eutelsat first explained that it was a technical problem with the W5 satellite, so it had to reduce the use of transponders. Eutelsat's explanation was refuted by remarks in a recorded telephone conversation published by Reporters Without Borders on July 10. In the conversation, a Eutelsat employee admitted that the cancellation of NTDTV's signal was premeditated and due to economic and political reasons, not a technical failure.
Transcripts of the Eutelsat and Chinese ambassador telephone recordings clarified the situation. The recording of the conversation with the Chinese ambassador can be heard on the WOIPFG (http://upholdjustice.org) website: "When they (Eutelsat) got this thing done, we gave them full support and told them not to worry about this issue." That remark was made by the Chinese ambassador to an investigator from WOIPFG.
The interruption of the satellite signal was carried out in exchange for commercial interests. The Chinese ambassador admitted in the same recording that, in return for canceling NTDTV's broadcasts, Eutelsat asked to "strengthen its relationship with China's CCTV. They want to cooperate with China's space industry in the areas of satellite communications and meteorological satellite. They want to use our rockets to launch their satellites." According to Reporters Without Borders, in order to obtain huge contracts, Eutelsat yielded to CCP pressure. The spokesman from the Executive Committee of the European Union said that the European Union understands this situation and had sent a letter to Eutelsat to ask them to explain the incident. A reporter from Corriere Della Sera made a phone call directly to Mr. Beretta, the CEO of Eutelsat, to ask for more detailed information about this incident. The response was that Mr. Beretta was on vacation. Phone calls to the Chinese ambassador are not answered.
NTDTV has lodged an adamant protest and launched a signature campaign on the Internet that is being widely supported.
