Eutelsat Continues to Evade Inconsistencies Regarding Its W5 Capacity
Created: Jan 21 2009
New York, January 18, 2009 - In response to the European Parliament declaration concerning Eutelsat S.A.’s discontinuation of NTDTV’s broadcast to China, Eutelsat on 15 January 2009 reiterated the “purely technical nature of the incident”. In its statement, Eutelsat avoided addressing 2 key pieces of evidence contradictory to its claims.
Despite technical problems, W5 still has sufficient capacity to support consumer broadcast.
Even with the problems encountered in June 2008, W5 continued to broadcast Voice of America and Radio Free Asia with 5 TV and 12 radio stations without interruption. When the U.S. Board of Broadcast Governors elected to vacate this bandwidth at the end of July 2008, this capacity was clearly available for NTDTV’s broadcast. As Eutelsat states “W5 is now consequently exclusively used for professional services”, NTDTV has learned that Canadian Forces Radio and TV is still broadcasting via W5’s C1 transponder.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) obtained evidence the broadcast termination was politically motivated.
On 10 July 2008, RSF released a recorded telephone conversation between a Eutelsat representative in Beijing and a caller that the representative believed to be a Chinese Propaganda Department official. According to the transcript, the Eutelsat representative stated, “It was our company CEO in France who decided to stop NTDTV’s signal. (...)We could have turned off any of the transponders. (...) It was because we got repeated complaints and reminders from the Chinese government. (...) Two years ago, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television kept saying the same thing over and over: ‘Stop that TV station before we begin to talk.”RSF said in a statement, the evidence indicated that NTDTV’s broadcast suspension “was a premeditated, politically-motivated decision” to appease Beijing.
NTDTV Canada’s President visited Eutelsat in August 2008 on behalf of NTDTV worldwide viewers
NTDTV Canada’s President Mr. Wang visited Eutelsat Paris headquarter on August 6, 2008, solely for delivering thousands petitions from NTDTV worldwide viewers, especially those in China, and on their behalf, asking Eutelsat reconsider its decision to switch off NTDTV Asia signal. Eutelsat barred entrance of Mr. Wang’s associate and admitted only Mr. Wang himself.
Mr. Wang met with Ms. Vanessa O'Connor, Director of Eutelsat Corporate Communications, Mr. Yves Blanc, Director of Eutelsat Strategy and Institutional Relations as well as a note taker. Mr. Wang delivered the petitions to Mr. Blanc. Ms. O’Connor and Mr. Blanc reiterated the then Eutelsat official line of the W5 incident. Mr. Wang asked them to respond to RSF’s report. While they did not dispute the authenticity of the RFS investigation and the report, Ms.
O’Connor told Mr. Wang that the Eutelsat Beijing representative in the telephone recording obtained by RSF was a temporary secretary, which as NTDTV learned, was not true. NTDTV welcomes any meeting any where any time with Eutelsat on equal terms, with independent observation, to discuss the W5/NTDTV issue in person and hopefully to find a mutually acceptable solution to allow millions Chinese homes to regain access to free information on TV.
About NTDTV
Established in 2001, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) is a non-profit television broadcaster and the only independent Chinese-language television to broadcast into China. NTDTV is dedicated to providing objective, uncensored news to Chinese residents. As a vital news source, NTDTV reported on the SARS outbreak in China three weeks before Beijing admitted to its existence.NTDTV also reports on environmental and human rights issues in China, generating awareness among Chinese residents important issues their government withholds from them.
