Chinese Embassy asks Maori TV to pull controversial doco

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Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:00a.m.

Wena Harawira

Wena Harawira

By Liz Puranam

The Chinese Embassy is trying to stop Maori Television from showing a documentary about a Muslim minority in China.

In Australia, Chinese authorities went to great lengths to stop The 10 Conditions of Love playing at the Melbourne Film Festival – but were unsuccessful.
 
The Chinese Government does not want Maori TV to screen the documentary, or an interview it has done with the main subject.
 
That is a stance that has shocked the interviewer.
 
"To think that the Chinese Government would try and tell Maori Television what to do seemed, quite surprising to me," says Maori TV reporter Wena Harawira. 

The documentary is about exiled Uyghur Nationalist Rebiya Kadeer, and the Uyghur people’s struggle for an independent state in China.

Ms Harawira travelled to Australia to interview the twice Nobel Peace Prize nominated Kadeer, who was there for the movie’s premiere.

Kadeer says she is a freedom fighter.

The Chinese Government says she is a terrorist.

They have accused her of helping to orchestrate last month’s ethnic violence in China’s Xinjiang province, in which 197 people were killed.

Officials from the Chinese Embassy met with Maori TV on Wednesday to try and discourage them from showing anything that features Kadeer.

No one from the embassy would talk to 3 News today, but they released a statement which reads:

“Her film The 10 Conditions of Love is about her anti-China separatist activities. We are firmly opposed to any foreign countries providing a platform for her anti-China activities.”

But Maori TV will provide a platform for Radeer when they screen Harawira’s interview tomorrow night, before playing The 10 Conditions of Love on September 1.

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Comments

18 Jan 2010 03:47p.m.

stuart wrote:

Well done China - yeah, right. First force Google to filter what citizens in China can get on the web, and now try to filter what citizens in NZ can see on Maori TV.

29 Dec 2009 05:21a.m.

samuel welsh wrote:

free tibet

31 Aug 2009 04:41p.m.

Mark wrote:

Dear Alien, I m interested to know how and why, you feel qualified to speak on behalf of the Tibetan people. I agree that there is more to the situation than is in the media, but the Tibetans don't get a vote, so we will never really know what they think. Furthermore the Chinese Communist policy of religious control, not to mention some of the other policies, doesn’t do the Chinese any favours. Finally if the Chinese government is in the right, why don’t they have freedom of speech, and no, applying to the government your protesting against for a permit isn’t freedom of speech.

17 Aug 2009 06:37p.m.

Alien wrote:

john, perhaps you should educate yourself on Tibet. Under China rule Tibetans are no longer the slaves, sex slaves of the previous rulers, and are actually allowed to own their own property, something that was forbidden under the so called peaceful rule of those before. Seems that if you really look into it instead of buying the western BS, Tibetans are more than happy being part of china No different than the US banning Conspiracy of Silence and trying to shut it down internationally, but that didn't get much press because too many countries are in bed with America.

17 Aug 2009 01:43p.m.

nelson wrote:

if they dont like what other countries are doing about something like that let them sign human right ,

17 Aug 2009 01:38p.m.

nelson wrote:

christine there's nothing to understand about there concern cuz to tell a nother people what they should do is stupid,u remember that there goverment say that dont dont want some body mendling in their own affair,why are they interfering in another peoples affair?did maori tv go to china to do so?why should they be anoid in something that does not belong to them?

17 Aug 2009 01:23p.m.

john wrote:

OK ,,Lets do a deal. we wont show the Doco if you lot free Tibet !!

17 Aug 2009 01:16p.m.

nelson wrote:

why do (chinese govt) always ask the other countries not to do something like that?it seem that what they(chinese goverment) are doing is bad,that's why they dont want other people to see it?

17 Aug 2009 09:45a.m.

Simon wrote:

Why is this being reported at all? It's no big deal, the Chinese embassy has every right to urge Maori TV or whoever else not to screen the documentary, but Maori TV etc. also has every right to refuse their request and go ahead with the screening. I don't understand why people have to be "outraged" in anyway, the Chinese embassy is just doing their job and they haven't broken any NZ law.

16 Aug 2009 11:15p.m.

Adam wrote:

People in NZ (and other Western-style democracies) fought *long and hard* for the RIGHT of free speech. I can't see why Chinese people in NZ could be offended - as they chose to live in a democracy. Good on you, Maori TV.