Thirteen people who confessed to their crimes on TV call on Europe to stop broadcasting Chinese channels.
Thirteen victims who were forced by the Chinese Communist Party to publicly confess their crimes on television launched a joint petition Tuesday calling on European satellite operator Eutelsat to stop broadcasting CCTV4 and CGTN, the official international channels of the Chinese Communist Party. According to one of the initiators, Swedish human rights activist Peter Dahlin, Telia, a Norwegian telecommunications provider, has agreed to stop broadcasting the CGTN channel. (By Derek Fong)
The letter was signed by 13 people, including Simon Cheng, a former employee of the British Consulate General in Hong Kong; Angela, the daughter of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay bookstore shareholder Gui Minhai; mainland Chinese rights lawyers Bao Longjun, Wang Yu, Xie Yang, Liu Sixin and Jiang Tianyong; and Hebei human rights activist Liu Xing.
The letter was published by Safeguard Defenders, a non-governmental organization focused on human rights issues in Asia. The letter lists various incidents in which the Chinese Communist Party forced them to confess guilt and denied them the right to a fair trial. As direct victims of this practice (forced confessions), we urge you to review the information provided below and consider whether television providers in a democratic society should continue to be morally complicit in broadcasting deliberately distorted messages obtained through torture, threats and deprivation of personal freedom,” the letter said.
The open letter added: “We are only a dozen victims who have been able to speak out …… Many other victims are in prison and several have been executed” and “The only way to stop the victims’ claims from going unanswered is for television regulators to investigate and take measures”.
In early February, Ofcom revoked the broadcasting license of China Global Television Network (CGTN) on the grounds that it was controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. But the French media authority, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA), approved CGTN’s application for a broadcasting license in early March, allowing it to continue broadcasting in European countries, including the United Kingdom.
Earlier, Sweden’s Telia also suspended CGTN and CCTV-4 for airing footage of two Swedes forced to confess to crimes.
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