China is putting pressure on France to take a TV station run by the religious group Falun Gong off the air. Falun Gong has been banned in China as an “evil cult” since 1999. New Tang Dynasty Television started broadcasting on Eutelsat’s W5 satellite in April. Eutelsat is a French-registered company.
This isn’t the first attempt by the Chinese government to force the station off the air. Three days after the station started broadcasting on a satellite owned by the Dutch-based NSS company, NSS encrypted the signal following threats of economic sanctions against the company by Beijing.
The Chinese embassy in Paris declined to comment on the latest development, but the French Foreign Ministry confirmed that Beijing had contacted it about the station. A Ministry spokesman said: “It is an issue for [France's] Supreme Audiovisual Council, which takes its decisions independently.” The council, which issued a broadcasting licence to the station on March 30, said it had not been contacted by either China or the French Foreign Ministry about the station. Eutelsat also declined to comment.
(Source: Asia Media)
on Jun 10th, 2004 at 19:28
What’s so evil about this channel?
on Jun 10th, 2004 at 21:26
Well, this isn’t the place to discuss religious matters. The phrase “evil cult” is what the Chinese call Falun Gong, not Media Network, why is why it is in quotes. We are not responsible for Chinese policy on religious matters
A Google search on Falun Gong will produce a lot of sites that will explain the background and put the item in context. I think our readers are intelligent enough to form their own opinions 
on Jun 11th, 2004 at 17:50
The Chinese government would certainly be stretching belief if they DID describe Media Network as an evil cult. It’s more like a comfy quilt in my opinion.