IS THE AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION SUPPRESSING A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT REBIYA KADEER IN ORDER TO GAIN ACCESS TO THE CHINESE BROADCASTING MARKET ? WE WONDER.
See the updated status of this action below.
When international film festivals and national television broadcasters decided to screen THE TEN CONDITIONS OF LOVE, a documentary about Uighur human rights activist REBIYA KADEER, they encountered enormous pressure by the Chinese government to exclude the documentary.
This is no surprise. The Chinese government has consistently tried to brand Ms Kadeer a “terrorist”. It blamed her for inciting the riots that took place in Xinjiang earlier this year, and for any and all political unrest within the province. It opposes any rebuttal in the public sphere of their propaganda campaign against Rebiya Kadeer and the Uighurs, just as it opposes any rebuttal of their propaganda campaign against the Dalai Lama.
So furious was the Chinese government about the imminent screenings of the documentary that Chinese directors withdrew their films from the 2009 Melbourne International Film Festival, lest government funding for future projects be threatened. Chinese government hackers then sabotaged the box office website of the Melbourne International Film Festival. But the Melbourne Festival did not back down from its commitment to free speech and human rights in the face of the threats and attacks from the Chinese government; it screened the film, with Rebiya Kadeer in attendance, to sold out houses.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) purchased national broadcast rights for to the documentary last year. It scheduled the broadcast for December 17, 2009. DVDs were to be sold from the ABC stores the day after the screening, December 18. Director Jeff Daniels, a former employee of the ABC, suggested that the film be marketed as “the film that China doesn’t want you to see”.
When he called the ABC two weeks before the broadcast, he was told that that it had been postponed because the ABC “would like ‘things’ to settle down a little”.
What things, we would like to know? The ABC, a funded government entity, is eager to broadcast its production in the enormously profitable Chinese market. Is the price of market access self-censorship? Mark Scott, Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corp, denies this; though a few weeks earlier at Marguarire University in New South Wales, he spoke of “a global ABC: soft diplomacy and the world of international broadcasting.”
Soft Diplomacy? That’s a politician’s responsibility, not the media’s.
Good news! The ABC has announced plans to show the film. Please read their letter to our group in response to our inquiries.
