ABC chief denies pulling controversial film
Feb 09
The ABC‘s managing director Mark Scott has denied a report that the public broadcaster last year pulled a documentary film about the Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer because it would offend China.
The Australian reports that according to the documentary’s producer, John Lewis, The 10 Conditions of Love was effectively “locked in” to be shown on 17 December at 8:30pm and that DVDs would begin being distributed in ABC Shops from the following day. Lewis claims that he was then told that the ABC would no longer be showing the film on that date, on the grounds that “we’d like things to settle down a bit” in relation to China.
An article published this afternoon on ABC News Online contains an account of email correspondence between Lewis and an ABC television executive. According to the report, the executive told Lewis that the documentary was “no longer airing on that date”, implying that the film had previously been assigned the specified slot.
But speaking on Radio National this morning, Scott denied the report, saying that The 10 Conditions of Love had not been shelved and accusing The Australian of hypocrisy.
“It was never locked in for December 17 I’m told, and we will be showing it this year.
“The suggestion that somehow the ABC has buckled under pressure is absolutely ludicrous and it’s particularly ludicrous coming from a News Limited newspaper, given their long corporate and complex relationship with China over many years.”
The 2009 film has attracted condemnation from senior Chinese politicians, who claim that allowing the film to be shown would foment “anti-China separatist activities”. When the film was shown at the Melbourne International Film Festival last year, the festival’s website was subjected to cyber-attacks from IP addresses within China. Hackers posted images of the Chinese flag and messages demanding that organisers apologise for screening the film.
China’s government alleges that Kadeer, who has long argued that the Uighur ethnic minority in China has been oppressed, is linked to terrorist organisations.
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Cyril Washbrook February 9th 2010