CHINA CRACKS DOWN ON TV STATION THAT SHOWED TIBETAN FLAG
Thomas J Wheat
2004-03-25
http://origin.rfaweb.org/front/article.html?service=eng&encoding=10&id=131656
WASHINGTON, March 25, 2004佑hinese authorities have launched a
political re-education program at an official television station in
the Tibetan capital of Lhasa after it broadcast shots containing the
Tibetan national flag, which is banned in Tibet under Chinese rule,
Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.
The offending footage was broadcast around 8 p.m. Feb. 21, the first
day of new year in the Tibetan calendar, by Lhasa-based Tibet TV3. It
showed a Tibetan man in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu with a huge
Tibetan national flag behind him. The program was titled "Wonders of
the Earth," a source familiar with the incident told RFA's Tibetan
service.
Sources close to the incident say the footage was broadcast
inadvertently after a member of the news staff of the Han Chinese
ethnicity failed to identify the flag in the background. The image was
broadcast for just under five seconds. A retired member of the
television station staff spotted the flag and reported to Tibetan
Autonomous Region (TAR) television authorities that it had been
broadcast, sources said.
The program sparked an outcry among Chinese officials. The director of
Tibet TV3 was demoted but no one was detained. They were told to
acknowledge their mistake at a meeting at the TAR Department of
Information and Communication, sources said. Most of the junior staff
at the station were ethnic Han Chinese, working part-time. All staff
must now undergo re-education and write self-criticisms acknowledging
their error.
One source said the program was originally made in China and later
sent to Tibet TV3, but no further details were available.
Tibet TV3's officials declined to comment when contacted by RFA.
Beijing has recently banned a book on Tibet in Chinese that touches on
sensitive religious issues, including how the exiled Dalai Lama is
still revered by Tibetans inside Tibet, a London-based rights group
said reported.
"Notes on Tibet," written in Chinese by the Tibetan author Oser, was
banned late last year after Oser tried to get it published in the
southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where the political climate is
usually more tolerant, the Tibet Information Network said.
The book, a collection of 38 essays describing the author's encounters
with different people and places in Tibet, contained 10 essays
considered sufficiently contentious to warrant banning the book.
The author previously worked at the Chinese-language journal "Tibetan
Literature in Lhasa" but has fled the Tibetan capital over the
controversy surrounding her book.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's religious and political leader, fled Lhasa in
1959 after an unsuccessful revolt against Chinese rule. He is now the
head of the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala, India.
RFA broadcasts news and information to Asian listeners who lack
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critical gap in the lives of people across Asia.
Created by Congress in 1994 and incorporated in 1996, RFA currently
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dialect, Vietnamese, Tibetan (Uke, Amdo, and Kham), and Uyghur. It
adheres to the highest standards of journalism and aims to exemplify
accuracy, balance and fairness in its editorial content.#####
Mahakala
"Thomas J Wheat" <thoma...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:57cf3dba.04032...@posting.google.com...
> CHINA CRACKS DOWN ON TV STATION THAT SHOWED TIBETAN FLAG
> 2004-03-25
>
http://origin.rfaweb.org/front/article.html?service=eng&encoding=10&id=131656
>
>
They are absolutely terrified, and also ashamed of the visible reminder of
what they are doing to Tibet. It is interesting that other countries that
allow free speech and displays. I fly the Tibetan flag on certain holidays.
Also, I own a Soviet Union flag and military items that did not raise an
eyebrow from the government, even when the USSR was still pretending to be
strong.
Fear in government over symbols is actually humourous, in its own way.