Epoch Times staff held a press conference on September 1 at Ralph Bunche park, across the street from U.N. headquarters in New York.
Two Epoch Times reporters and one Sound of Hope radio vice president shared their stories of difficulties with the process of obtaining UN press passes for the upcoming World Summit and General Assembly, which is part of Hu Jintao's itinerary during his Sep. 5-17 North American visit. No Epoch Times reporters had yet been granted press passes for the UN at press time.
Text of the statement read at the press conference is below:
* Organization Affiliated with City of Seattle Responsible for Ban
* First Amendment Concerns Raised
The Epoch Times has been denied media credentials to cover events during Chinese president Hu Jintao's visit to Seattle on Sept. 5 and 6. Notice of the denial came in an e-mail from Sam Kaplan, the vice-president of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle. That organization is handling media requests for Hu's visit.
According to Mr. Kaplan's email the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco made the decision to ban The Epoch Times . He describes the Trade Development Alliance as acting as a "conduit" to the Chinese Consulate. Neither the Trade Development Alliance nor the Chinese Consulate could be reached for comment.
According to its website the Trade Development Alliance is "a collaboration of the Port of Seattle, Port of Tacoma, Metropolitan King County Government, Snohomish County Government, Pierce County Government, City of Seattle, City of Everett, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and union leadership." The website's url begins "www.cityofseattle.net."
The City of Seattle's interest in pleasing the Chinese government should be obvious. During Hu Jintao's visit, he will tour two of the regions biggest employers, Boeing and Microsoft. This year Boeing announced $12 billion in orders from China-based airlines.
The Chinese government has been hostile to The Epoch Times since its inception. The Epoch Times is an international, independent, multi-language newspaper published in 8 languages and more than 30 countries. It began as a Chinese-language website, founded in 2000.
The Epoch Times reported factual, uncensored stories from China, including articles on China's human rights abuses. In December 2000 security forces arrested over 30 individuals working for the paper and many of those were given stiff sentences for "subverting the political power of the state." Confessions were forced with torture. Four of those arrested are still in prison today. (Please see Epoch Times Reporters Jailed in China )
Outside of China The Epoch Times has reported on a wide range of acts of harassment and intimidation. This interference with its business greatly increased after The Epoch Times published "The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party." This book-length series of editorials gives an uncensored history of Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In response to these editorials, 4.1 million Chinese have withdrawn from the CCP or its affiliated organizations, with more withdrawing each day.
Since the "Nine Commentaries" were published the Malaysian government suddenly banned The Epoch Times ; in Hong Kong printing shops have refused to print The Epoch Times ; in mainland China the family members of the U.S. Epoch Times staff reported being threatened.
Now the City of Seattle has decided to cooperate with the Chinese government to limit press freedom here in the United States. When we do business with China, what price are we getting for the First Amendment?
(Please see Epoch Times Banned from Covering Chinese President's Visit )
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