NEW YORK - New Tang Dynasty TV held a press conference near the United Nations at noon on Sept. 15 exposing the Chinese Communist Party's pressure on the UN by diplomatic means to stop NTD-TV from interviewing the Chinese delegation regarding activities it participated in.
On Sept. 14, NTD-TV's reporters requested entry to the UN assembly hall to attend the meeting in which Chinese leader Hu Jintao would make a speech in order to question him. The media management personnel of the UN, upon learning the reporters were from NTD-TV, rejected the reporters' request without an acceptable reason and in an offensive manner, NDT-TV said. They told the reporters that they could not attend and hold an interview during any activities the Chinese delegation participated in.
They also threatened to confiscate the reporters' press cards. NTD-TV was the only media that was rejected by the UN in this meeting. In fact, the UN rejected NTD-TV reporters from covering and interviewing the Chinese delegation during the human rights meetings held in Geneva two years ago. Media officials at the UN said that they were pressured by the CCP. It appears that the CCP has again applied great pressure on the UN.
The spokesperson of NTD-TV said that NTD-TV is an independent and nonprofit Chinese TV station in the U.S. Since it was established, it has reported many significant and sensitive events and broke the stories of SARS, Article 23 in Hong Kong, Tibetan issues and the Xinjiang issues. It has reported on the CCP's oppression of underground churches, the CCP's agenda to invade Taiwan, public figures involved in democratic movements and Falun Gong.
The NTD-TV spokesperson thought that the UN action was a betrayal of its principles of protecting the freedom of the press, and seriously harmed the UN's image and the principles that it has always esteemed.
