To the Friends of NTDTV:
One month ago we suspended our public campaign to save New Tang Dynasty TV's satellite broadcast to China. Eutelsat agreed to continue the broadcast and undertake good-faith negotiations with NTDTV for a long-term contract based on international free speech content standards for this historic "Open Satellite Window" covering East Asia.
We got this far thanks to your strong support and the efforts of many friends around the world -- including more than 80,000 NTDTV viewers who have signed our petition urging President Bush to save the only uncensored Chinese-language TV broadcast into China. As you know, Eutelsat is the US Government's largest supplier of satellite services, enjoying more than 40% of total contracting share.
NTDTV has just been notified that Eutelsat will definitely stop broadcasting NTDTV over Asia on May 21, unless NTDTV accepts:
-- no free speech/international content standards
-- no US legal jurisdiction to defend free speech content
-- no long-term transmission, only short-term with renewal controlled by Eutelsat partner
-- no direct contract, only arms-length agreement that can be changed without NTDTV's consent
-- price 300% higher than previous market offer
-- no "Open Satellite Window" for NTDTV or other independent channels
Eutelsat has also falsely informed the US Government that NTDTV had accepted these impossible terms before they were even delivered to NTDTV. Apparently Eutelsat hopes this time it can "blame the victim" for the broadcast being stopped. Reports from the satellite industry indicate that Eutelsat's management wants to be free to do further non-transparent deals with Beijing, in return for dropping NTDTV after the channel is forced to accept a bad agreement under pressure of the May 21 shut-down. NTDTV has been working hard to negotiate with Eutelsat in good faith, but the Paris-based company is only repeating its previous bad conduct again.
We urgently need your help again to keep NTDTV on the air -- and to establish the "Open Satellite Window" once and for all. The White House and Administration must ensure that this crucial information channel into China will expand and be made permanent.
Further US taxpayer funds must not be paid to Eutelsat unless:
1. Eutelsat continues broadcasting NTDTV to China without interruption or conditions
2. Eutelsat immediately signs a direct, long-term, unconditional contract agreed by NTDTV
3. The "Open Satellite Window" is established with NTDTV for other independent TV and radio channels to broadcast without censorship via Eutelsat to China and East Asia (including Burma, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea).
For contact info with Eutelsat, please visit NTDTV websites:
English:
www.ntdtv.com/xtr/eng/eutelsat/p5.htm Chinese:
www.ntdtv.com/xtr/gb/aReadArticle.jsp?id=26581 www.ntdtv.com/xtr/eng/eutelsat/press_room.htm *******
Background
New Tang Dynasty TV, the US-based non-profit 24/7 news and information channel, is produced on a voluntary basis by Americans of Chinese descent and is watched in Chinese communities all over America and around the world.
NTDTV is the only uncensored Chinese-language TV that freely reaches the tens of millions of private satellite dishes in China. The response to NTDTV's broadcasting into China has been overwhelming -- just as the political, economic, and extra-legal pressure from Beijing has been unrelenting since this historic "Open Satellite Window" was launched last year.
NTDTV has been highly praised by international media and human rights groups for its crucial role in carrying independent voices directly to Chinese viewers, and especially for its professional coverage of human rights, pro-democracy and religious groups in China. NTDTV covers stories that Beijing tries to keep from the Chinese people; NTDTV broke the story of the SARS virus one month before international media.
The Chinese Communist Government (also at crucial points the French Government) has applied intense pressure on Eutelsat, the Paris-based satellite company that transmits NTDTV over Asia. This pressure includes major contracts and Eutelsat's recent "historic partnership agreement" with the Chinese regime -- on condition that Eutelsat stop broadcasting NTDTV (provide summary documentation). For years Beijing has successfully kept control over satellite broadcasts into China by bullying and bribing the satellite industry to block all independent broadcasts -- especially in the Chinese language (provide Wall Street Journal article & RSF statement).
Strong counter-pressure from the public and the U.S. Congress has stopped Eutelsat from ending NTDTV's transmission twice in the past year. Eutelsat has more than a 40% share of US Government satellite contracts, and is required by its own legal charter to provide equal access and to respect media pluralism. According to the business press, US satellite companies could replace most of this service if US contracts were bid openly.
The US Government is a huge customer on the same Eutelsat satellite that broadcasts NTDTV. Tens of millions of US taxpayer dollars per year go to Eutelsat for just that one satellite (W5) which is highly profitable for Eutelsat.
US pressure again blocked Eutelsat from ending NTDTV's broadcast last month. Eutelsat again pledged to sign a long-term contract based on free speech content standards -- not the Beijing censorship standards which Eutelsat was defending in a French court in March of this year as it was trying to shut off NTDTV's Asia broadcast. Eutelsat again agreed to promote development of a market-priced "Open Satellite Window" to guarantee access for NTDTV and other international broadcasters, pro democracy and religious channels that Beijing currently blocks from reaching the Chinese people. Unfortunately, once again these verbal promises which Eutelsat made in Washington were not followed up in writing from Paris -- quite the opposite.
