NEWS

Two Tibet Film Withdrawn from Asian Film Festival under Chinese Pressure

Bombay, August 17, 2004 (FOT India) - In a shocking and unprecedented move, perhaps for the first time in India, two important films, scheduled to be shown at the Asian Film Festival in Mumbai, have been withdrawn as a result of direct pressure from Chinese Embassy officials.

The Asian Film Festival's committee, headed by Festival Director Mr. Sudhir Nandgaonkar, has bowed before the threats made by the Chinese Embassy, who threatened to coerce the Indian Government into lifting censor exemptions on all films (not just the two films under controversy) in the festival, and
thus throw the entire festival into jeopardy.

The committee has backtracked on its decision to screen the two films, which speak out about the brutal and inhuman occupation of Tibet, ever since 1949, and the destruction of its culture, religion and environment at the hands of the occupying Chinese forces.

'Kundun' (by Martin Scorsese) based on the life of the present Dalai Lama and 'Seven Years in Tibet' (by Jean-Jacques Annaud), the story of Heinrich
Harrer's sojourn in Lhasa, at the time of the Chinese invasion, were part of a package of five films on Tibet, as a 'Focus on Tibet' module for the Third Eye, the film festival to be held from August 21 to August, 28. However, as soon as it was publicly announced that these films would form part of the festival, intense pressure was built up by members of China's diplomatic corps.

According to what was reported by Mr. Sudhir Nandgaonkar to Friends of Tibet (an Indian Tibet support group that had arranged to supply the films) there were phone calls from the Embassy in Delhi, as well as a meeting that he had to attend at the Chinese Consulate in Mumbai.

As he put it, there was no choice but to "surrender".  This surrender, resulting in China effectively deciding which films may be screened in a Mumbai festival, may be unprecedented, but similar Chinese bullying in India and other parts of the world is not a novel phenomenon.

It will be recalled, that in the year 2000, when Friends of Tibet had organised a six-day festival in Mumbai, similar pressure was applied on the
organisers, that time through the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. The Dalai Lama was scheduled to inaugurate the festival and participate in
it.  However, despite Chinese objections the organisers as well as the Ministry of External Affairs, to their credit, withstood the pressure.

More recently, on the Dalai Lama's visit to the UK in 2004, the Chinese objected to his giving an address to the University of Liverpool, as well as
the Parliament of Scotland. They went to the extent of threatening to cancel the sister university arrangement that the University of Liverpool has with Shanghai University. However, both, the university and the Scottish Parliament stood firm. The Chinese were categorically told: "This is Scotland, not China".

The Indian Committee for Cultural Freedom and Friends of Tibet (India) strongly protest this blatant interference in the freedom of the media. That the Chinese should do so is not at all surprising considering the nature of the Chinese State.  But it is sad that the organising committee of the Asian Film Festival should succumb to such illegitimate pressures from a foreign power and deny the Indian people the right to see the films of their choice.

For Friends of Tibet (India) Aspi Mistry, (Spokesperson) Mobile: 9820491350
For The Indian Committee for Cultural Freedom, SV Raju, (Honorary Secretary) Mobile: 9820016392