Behind the scenes and out of sight the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been waging a quiet war against the existence of any media that might report honestly either to China's citizens or to China's immigrant population around the world.
A crucial battle in this war is the negotiation going on between the European satellite provider Eutelsat and the independent Chinese-language New Tang Dynasty TV ( NTDTV ). Eutelsat broadcast NTDTV into China for one year, but attempted to terminate this relationship this April, in spite of company by-laws that should have guaranteed the renewal of NTDTV's contract.
At stake in the present negotiations is whether NTDTV may continue the only uncensored TV broadcasts available to the Chinese people.
NTDTV is a brash start-up in the world of international media companies. Founded in 2001, NTDTV offered satellite broadcasting inside the U.S. in North America in February 2002, and began worldwide satellite broadcasting in July 2003.
NTDTV has always understood itself to be an antidote to CCP propaganda. Among other events, the reactions among Chinese in the U.S. to 9/11, in which some Chinese living in the U.S. actually cheered the destruction of the World Trade Center, led the founders of NTDTV to realize the pressing need for a TV station that would give Chinese an independent source of news and information.
Since its inception, NTDTV has covered several stories that one could not have learned about through the official media in China, or through the Chinese-language media outside China dominated by the CCP.
NTDTV reported on the epidemic SARS while the official Chinese media denied its existence. After the death of Zhao Ziyang, the former Chinese Communist Party leader who opposed the violent crackdown on the students in Tiananmen Square, China's official media was silent about this beloved official's passing. Many Chinese only learned of it through NTDTV.
NTDTV also gave extensive coverage to Hong Kong's successful resistance to Beijing's attempts to strip away Hong Kong's civil liberties through the implementation of the anti-sedition law known as Article 23. Chinese with satellite dishes got to see for themselves hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers peacefully marching in order to defend their democratic institutions. In addition, the station broadcast the U.S. presidential debates, and covered Taiwan's recent presidential election.
A particular sore spot for the CCP is NTDTV's ongoing coverage of human rights in China, including the persecution of Falun Gong, house Christians, and Tibetans, and the suppression of the labor and democracy movements.
NTDTV has also broadcast every word of The Epoch Times "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party," and covered the massive renunciations of the CCP this book has inspired.
The CCP has used economic blackmail, threats and political pressure to try to keep NTDTV off the air.
According to the Asia-Pacific Media Network, China Central TV (CCTV) buys 30 different multi-channel satellite packages, where 6 such packages would reach 99% of the world's audience. This massive CCTV presence in a depressed satellite market with excess capacity gives it great leverage over satellite providers, who are eager not to lose its patronage.
In July 2003, NTDTV had contracted with New Skies Satellites (NSS) to broadcast an open signal into China. Three days after the first broadcast, NSS encrypted the signal. China had threatened NSS with major losses unless NTDTV's open transmission was ended, which the encryption effectively did.
China seeks to block NTDTV from broadcasting not only into China, but elsewhere. In February, 2003, ADTH, Inc., a Georgia-based company, cancelled an agreement to carry NTDTV's program on the Telstar 12 satellite platform to Europe. The company explained that doing so would anger Beijing and some Chinese-language TV stations ADTH already carried.
When NTDTV tried to broadcast its 2004 New Year's Gala into China through the Manila-based company Mabuhay, the Chinese Embassy in Manila put direct pressure on the company. On the eve of the broadcast, it was cancelled.
Altogether six different satellite broadcasters that have relations with Chinese companies have cancelled or refused NTDTV.
In addition to trying to freeze NTDTV out of the satellite market, the CCP has also tried to make it impossible for the station to do business in other ways. NTDTV claims hundreds of cases in which Chinese government officials have prevented NTDTV from covering China-U.S. events held in the United States, harassed advertisers and supporters, intimidated potential guests on NTDTV programs, and threatened potential business partners.
Eutelsat understood very well the great importance that the CCP places on trying to keep NTDTV off the air.
The Wall Street Journal ("Eutelsat's Chinese Aims Hit Static," April 13, 2005) reported that current and former Eutelsat executives revealed how the company aimed all along to use a contract with NTDTV to pry new business out of China.
Eutelsat knew that once it began broadcasting NTDTV into China, China would seek to bribe it, as it had other satellite providers, into refusing NTDTV its services. Shortly after the broadcasts began, China strongly protested. Eutelsat signaled its willingness to cast NTDTV overboard, and it then subsequently inked lucrative broadcast agreements with China.
While Eutelsat courted China, it played a double game with NTDTV. A statement on NTDTV's website recalls a meeting with Eutelsat's Chairman, Guiliano Beretta in April, 2004. He "gave the NTDTV Board his personal guarantee that he would never remove our channel from his company's satellites." He said, "The European values of pluralism and fairness are embedded in the legal Convention that governs Eutelsat… Respect for pluralism is a vital factor that distinguishes Eutelsat from the rest of the satellite industry…" NTDTV adds that Beretta assured them that "it would need an order of the highest court in France to make him remove our channel…"
After Eutelsat announced its intention not to renew NTDTV's contract, it won a preliminary legal challenge in a Paris courtroom. Eutelsat was prepared to cease the broadcast of NTDTV on April 15. However, the Eutelsat business plan apparently did not count on the strong support NTDTV would attract around the world.
78 members of the European parliament wrote a letter supporting NTDTV's continued broadcasts, as did the French MP and former Minister of Culture, Jack Lang. 53 members of the Canadian Parliament likewise wrote in support.
Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists expressed strong support. 160 non-governmental organizations (NGO's) wrote to President Bush asking that he intercede on behalf of NTDTV. Tens of thousands of ordinary citizens around the world signed a petition.
All of this moral support may have been outweighed in Eutelsat's eyes by support of a more substantial kind. 93 members of the U.S. Congress wrote to President Bush. The key sentence in that letter reads "While the U.S. has a strong relationship with Eutelsat to date, we see no reason why U.S. taxpayers should continue to fund satellite companies that discriminate in favor of repressive regimes and against free media."
According to subsequent media reports, Pentagon officials in fact threatened to pull their substantial business with Eutelsat should Eutelsat not renew NTDTV. Eutelsat agreed to return to the bargaining table with NTDTV.
The negotiations are in a sense coerced on both sides. NTDTV now knows that Eutelsat's word cannot be trusted, but has nowhere else to go. Eutelsat has unilaterally declared a deadline of May 21, after which it may pull the plug on the station's broadcasts to China. The lack of progress in the negotiations suggests Eutelsat is weighing how much may be gained or lost by doing just that.
Eutelsat's spokespeople claim that the company makes its decisions strictly on commercial grounds. Unfortunately, freedom is priceless, while the profit that may be made in aiding a regime that controls its 1.3 billion people with propaganda and terror can be calculated down to the last euro. One hopes that in this next week Eutelsat will discover the value of freedom.
For more information please see the Accuracy in Media organization article: French Company Accused of Pro-Beijing Censorship .
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