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Statement Regarding the Press Conference Cancellation Incident at the EU-China Summit in Brussels on Wednesday, October 6, 2010.
On October 6 2010, a reporter from the Chinese Sound of Hope Radio Network (SOH) was initially denied entrance to the European Council building in Brussels for “security reasons” when attending a post-event press conference at EU-China Summit. After the reporter was admitted later, the press conference was canceled. According to confirmation from API and other sources, Chinese delegation canceled the joint press conference to avoid facing the questions from independent media, like SOH.
This unusual handling of situation is yet another piece of evidence of Chinese government’s denial and suppression of freedom of press, and is also another incident that SOH runs into with Chinese totalitarian regime as it carries out its duty of reporting news and broadcasting to Chinese audience. There are some incidents in the recent years such as:
- In December 2004, Chinese government cut off three toll-free phones that SOH set up for mainland Chinese to gain access to the news desk of the radio station.
- The Chinese regime has been jamming SOH’s shortwave broadcasts into China from July 2005 to the present day.
- People working for SOH in China were arrested and sentenced to labor camps or prisons. One recent instance is Tan Zuoren, a writer in Chendu City, Sichuan, China, was sentenced to 5-year prison term in Feb 2010, one of the “charges” being that he was interviewed by SOH.
SOH condemns Chinese government violating the freedom of speech and taking undeserved measures to mute free and independent media.
We encourage European Union to insist its own principles and reject the demands or pressure from Chinese government to stifle freedom of speech.
statement issued by the Chinese Sound of Hope Radio Network.
