Don't do it Maori TV
"China is to pressure Maori Television to screen its own, government-produced film on riots in a Muslim-majority province instead of an independent documentary on an exiled leader.
Maori TV is to screen 10 Conditions of Love, an Australian film about the struggle of Muslim Uighur people in Xinjiang, the scene of recent ethnic riots, and their figurehead, Rebiya Kadeer.
Beijing, however, has produced its own documentary, Xinjiang Urumqi July 5 Riot: Truth and has asked Maori TV to screen it instead.
In the Chinese-produced film, Kadeer is branded a terrorist and accused of instigating and orchestrating the ethnic riots in the northwestern Xinjiang region last month that left at least 197 people dead.
"The film shows what kind of a person Rebiya Kadeer actually is," a spokeswoman for the Chinese Embassy in Wellington said. She would not say if a formal complaint had been laid with the New Zealand Government, but added: "We are firmly opposed to any foreign countries providing a platform for her anti-China separatist activities."
Indigenous people's rights need support from all indigenous people.
3 comments:
...maybe they should show *both, actually. govt produced PR exercises, (like the tv1 john key programme last night seemed to be) are always good for a rollicking laugh!
Good one feddabonn - i missed that, but there does seem to be many opportunities to find the humour as the two major parties make fools of themselves one after the other. It almost seems orchestrated - like the petrol companies. "Damn it we stuffed up today - your turn tommorrow to take the heat off."
This island nation in the south seas is a long way from your lands feddabonn - how are you finding things?
[grin] i think one of the (not-so-publicised) responsibilities of political parties is to provide the nation with entertainment, more so in the 'laughing at' genre than the 'laughing with'.
ah well, i'm a little homesick sometimes, but this experience is good. learning a lot here- i hope i can make some of this learning useful back home!
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