France: Members of the European Parliament call for Eutelsat to Resume NTDTV Broadcasts into China

NTDTV is very important for Chinese people

Helga Trupel, MEP from Germany, said, "For Chinese people, It is very important to resume the signal of the NTDTV because it allows Chinese people to learn the truth about things such as the tainted milk scandal."

Ms. Trupel stressed that freedom of the press and human rights are universal values, and that members of the European Parliament have the duty to defend them. Marco Cappato, an MEP from Italy said that in his double positions both as a co-coordinator from the Liberal Democratic Union and a member of the Human Rights Committee in the European Parliament, he gave his support in the motion calling to resume the signal of NTDTV and encouraged other MEPs to sign it. The EU and its member states should take a strong, firm and clear position so that NTDTV broadcasts into China will resume.

The EU should stand up to pressure from the CCP

Manyan Ng, the director of the International Association of Human Rights (IFGM), the largest human rights organisation in Germany, pointed out that "because of the control of the media by the CCP authorities, including incidents such as SARS, the persecution of Falun Gong and the recent "poisonous milk powder", all these have developed to such a serious extent that should not have to. I sincerely hope that the EU can stand up to the pressure from the CCP this time."

The EU should investigate this matter

Ms. Zhou, from NTDTV Europe said, "Today, I feel sad because normally I am a reporter, gathering news about the activities of the Parliament when I sit among you. In fact, our TV station is the only one that helps the Chinese people to learn what is happening in the European Parliament."

Ms. Zhou urged the EU and the French government to take actions against Eutelsat and have it resume broadcasting NTDTV into China "because it is not only to report something about the European Parliament, but more important is that NTDTV has been reporting serious issues related to China. For example, the recent poisonous milk powder incident. In addition, NTDTV learned that a week before the Olympic Games, the former Chinese Director General in Food Production Supervision Department of State General Administration for Quality Inspection had committed suicide, closely related to the food quality scandal.

Ms. Zhou requested Eutelsat to give a detailed technical explanation about breaking the NTDTV signal. She also thought that the EU should investigate the reason behind this matter. If Eutelsat has received some benefits from the EU economically, the money should not have gone into the hands of those who suppress freedom in news and have put Chinese people's lives in danger.

This matter has continued to foment in the European Parliament. Recently, five MEPs (two of them attended this press conference) has co-sponsored a motion in the European Parliament calling on EU member states to be concerned about this and take action in urging Eutelsat to resume NTDTV's signal.

68 Members of the US Congress Request Eutelsat to Restore NTDTV Broadcasts into China

Ms. Ros-Lehtinen stated in the letter, "As Members of the United States congress, we are writing to respectfully request that Eutelsat restore New Tang Dynasty Television's (NTDTV) signal into China as soon as possible."

"As you know, in 2004, Congress celebrated the securing of a unique "open satellite window" into China and East Asia on Eutelsat's W5 satellite, and commended you personally for supporting NTDTV. That satellite window not only allowed US government-sponsored channels like Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) to broadcast to China, but also allowed NGO channels such as NTDTV to be freely received by tens of millions of private satellite dishes across China.

"We were therefore dismayed to see that NTDTV's signal to China was shut off as part of a technical incident on June 16-17. The signal still has not been restored to service by Eutelsat.

"We were even more disturbed by the report released by Reporters Without Borders suggesting that the targeted suspension of NTDTV was a "premeditated and politically-motivated decision" to expand business with Beijing.

"We respectfully request that you restore NTDTV's signal into China as soon as possible.

"We would rather not stipulate changes in the long-standing relationship between Eutelsat and the U.S. Government, and we hope that you can assert your leadership as you did in 2005 and restore service to NTDTV immediately. We appreciate your attention to this urgent matter."

Sincerely,

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Ranking Member , Committee on Foreign Affairs

Eliot L. Engel

Chairman Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere

CC:

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republic of France

Mr. George W. Bush, President of the United States of America

Ms. Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State

Mr. Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Defense

Mr. Stephen Hadley, The National Security Advisor of The National Security Council 

United Kingdom: Chinese People Quit the CCP in London's Chinatown

October 1st marks the date that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) achieved control over China. For the Chinese, this date marks the beginning of disaster for the country. As October 1 approached this year, the UK Quitting the CCP Service Centres organized activities in London, Cambridge, Manchester and elsewhere to support the 43,000,000 people who have withdrawn from the CCP and its affiliated organizations After people learned more about the CCP's evil nature, many more Chinese people quit the CCP.

Information was made available at the Quitting the CCP Service Centre, including the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, in printed and VCD format, and a new leaflet about the poisonous milk scandal. Many people were drawn to accept the new leaflet due to the timeliness of the issue, and many expressed their disapproval of the CCP.

Mr. Jiang, who had just arrived in the UK from mainland China, recited the crimes committed by the CCP in its 59 years of rule, from farmers losing their land to religious persecution. He said that October 1 was not so much a "National Day," but should instead be a day of mourning.

Ms. Gao, a volunteer for the service centre, firmly believes that the poisonous milk powder scandal in mainland China justifies the necessity of disintegrating the CCP. She feels that the CCP has regularly done bad things regardless of people's lives for several decades. She said, "In the company where I work, my British colleagues said that it was unbelievable for this to have reached such a large scale and have lasted for such a long time. They wonder what the government is doing and what it could be thinking. I tell them that I feel that the Chinese people's hope is based on ending the dictatorship of the CCP so that our children will really have a safe environment."

Another volunteer said that the poisonous milk incident has helped Chinese people to see clearly the true nature of the CCP. In the past, when she told people about the CCP's inhuman nature, some people could not accept it, but last Sunday when she was talking with people about the poisonous milk incident, and reminding Chinese friends that the CCP was a real fountainhead of poison, few people tried to contradict her.

The activity on Sunday also attracted many Westerners. A student from Edinburgh said that he had heard about the human rights persecution happening in China, and he very much wished to understand why the CCP was persecuting so many people. A volunteer gave him an English version of the Nine Commentaries.

Volunteers from the UK Quitting the CCP Service Centre have been raising awareness and persuading their countrymen to renounce their membership in the CCP in London's Chinatown for more than two years.

Bulgaria: Practitioners Address Gathering of Psychologists in Blagoevgrad

Psychologists from Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey gathered in the city of Blagoevgrad to attend the "Create Your Universe" Project. Bulgarian Falun Dafa practitioners were invited to share the benefits they obtained from practicing Falun Gong.

On October 2, 2008 Bulgarian
Falun Dafa practitioners introduced Falun Gong to the group.

After a short demonstration of the first video lecture by Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of the practice, a lively discussion was held as a result of the psychologists' desire to know about the practitioners' personal experiences regarding mental and physical health benefits.

They were interested in how practitioners found out about Falun Dafa and why they started practicing, as well as why exactly this practice is persecuted in China. A Macedonian participant shared that she had read about Falun Gong, but in her country there aren't any practitioners yet.

Earlier, the practitioners held an information display in the centre of Blagoevgrad, in front of the main building of American University in Bulgaria, and also at South-Western University. They distributed informational leaflets to the locals and exposed the persecution of Falun Gong in China by the Chinese Communist Party.

Divine Performing Arts Show Receives High Praise in Geneva

Having just wrapped up six successful shows in Toronto, the Divine Performing Arts (DPA) went on stage in Geneva on October 1, 2008. Celebrities from all circles rewarded every program with warm applause. At the reception audience members had high praise for the beauty of the show.

The venue for the performance was Leman Theatre. The director of the theatre, Mr. Claude Proz, saw the show and said, "I am very sensitive to Chinese art, especially such a traditional performance. Only highly skilled artists could have mounted a production of such high standard. I am very pleased our theatre was able to host a show of such high quality today! Everyone I saw was smiling. The audience is happy. The sponsors are happy. I am certainly very happy!" Mr. Proz said they had decided to continue working with the Divine Performing Art for more shows in the future. "I hope they will come back soon!"

Mr. Rurik Giltsoff, a real estate developer, was very excited by the show. He said the background was a wonder and very original and that the colours of the costumes were fascinating. He could easily understand the meaning of the program because of his Asian background.

The Weiler family chatted with the DPA artists at the reception. Mrs. Weiler is Chinese Malaysian.

She and her husband have a company in Geneva. One of their sons is a financial analyst and the other a jewellery dealer. Mrs. Weiler told the reporter, "The Divine Performing Arts portrayed traditional Chinese culture through the show. It makes overseas Chinese very proud. I proudly tell my friends I am Chinese!" Mrs. Weiler thought the show was very successful and that it showed the best of Chinese culture from different ages and different regions.

Ms. Lyle, one of the sponsors of the show, said, "As a sponsor of the show, I had seen the beautiful brochure. But I was still astonished when I actually saw the wonderful performance! I have never seen such a show. The music, the stage design, the lighting, and the artists' outstanding performances-- everything was perfect!"

Divine Performing Arts is a non-profit entity based in North America. It aspires to preserve and renew a largely-lost cultural tradition while celebrating human dignity and positive values. The company seeks to produce an art that is not only rich, relevant, and inspiring, but also one that offers audiences of all ages a rare experience of consummate beauty and goodness.

The company was invited to give two shows in Geneva in March 2008 and won high praise. The DPA has given more than 200 shows in more than 60 cities around the world since December 2007 and captivated more than 600,000 audience members.

Belgium: Raising Awareness about Falun Gong and the Persecution

On October 24-27, the ninth staging of the Arts & Crafts Fair took place in the "Grenslandhallen," in the city of Hasselt, Belgium. Falun Gong practitioners have participated in this fair for several consecutive years.

The Falun Gong booth was filled with information about the practice, and practitioners demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises and showed festival-goers how to make folded paper lotus flowers. Others distributed information about the persecution in China, and promoted the upcoming Divine Performing Arts show in Antwerp. Practitioners at the booth distributed flyers and held regular exercise demonstrations, and presented two stage demonstrations in the centre of the fair.

The paper lotus flowers attracted many people and at most times there was not even enough room for everyone who wished to make a flower. Some people waited at the booth for a period of time, because they really wanted to make a flower. At times it wasn't possible to explain the meaning behind the Petals of Peace project to everyone, so practitioners handed out nicely-displayed written information to people, and later offered explanations, which many people appreciated.

An older couple carrying their grandchild approached the booth and asked for a lotus flower for the child and another one for another grandchild. "Coming from Falun Gong, the flowers will bring blessings to our grandchildren," they said. They had attended the Divine Performing Arts Spectacular show last February and said that they felt very much at peace after watching such a wonderful performance.

To promote the Divine Performing Arts show at the booth, practitioners prepared a separate display area where they showed the promotional video and distributed flyers. Several people told the practitioners that they attended the show this year and really enjoyed it. Most of those people who saw the show this year said that they would certainly see it again next year. One woman told a practitioner that she received a ticket for the Divine Performing Arts performance as a birthday present from her two daughters and that she will go back this year for sure. Her eyes shining, she said that it was a very beautiful birthday present.

Many people visited the Falun Gong stand and had very positive reactions. A woman told a practitioner that the Falun Gong booth attracted her very much and that she could really feel good energy. Afterwards, another person told a practitioner that she could also feel a strong energy emanating from the booth. Many visitors were interested in viewing the pictures, photos and other information at the booth.

When an older man heard about the principles Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, he talked with a practitioner for more than half an hour. The practitioner told him more about Falun Gong and gave him more detailed information about these universal principles. After listening for a while, the man said he would really like to read Zhuan Falun, and he immediately bought the book without hesitation.