DPA: China Scraps Broadcast of President's Speech Over Sabotage Fears

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HONG KONG, Jul 3, 2002 -- (dpa) Chinese TV stations abandoned plans to broadcast a speech by president Jiang Zemin over fears that activists would intercept and sabotage the transmission, a news report said Wednesday.

The decision came days after the banned Falun Gong meditation movement [interrupted] a broadcast satellite to transmit a message to millions of viewers across China last week.

Two stations - China Central TV and Phoenix Chinese TV - were scheduled to broadcast live Jiang Zemin's speech in Hong Kong on Monday to mark the fifth anniversary celebrations of the territory's return to Chinese rule.

The broadcasts were cancelled because of fears Falun Gong members could intercept the broadcast and cause "international embarrassment" to Beijing, the South China Morning Post said, quoting industry sources.

No official reason was given for the decision to drop the live broadcasts, which were advertised in advance by the TV stations. Neither station would comment on the cancellation, the newspaper said. [...]

Members of Falun Gong [...] last week successfully [interrupted] a satellite to broadcast a minutes-long message to millions of viewers across China. [...]

Falun Gong claims hundreds of its members have been jailed, tortured and in some cases killed since the movement was banned in China.

Source: http://www.europeaninternet.com/china/news.php3?id=2808473§ion=default

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