We are not part of Beijing yet Dr Ropata!

Controversial documentary to screen
A documentary which has caused tension between China and Australia is going to be broadcast on Maori Television despite protests from the Chinese Embassy. Maori Television confirmed that it will screen "The 10 Conditions of Love" on Tuesday September 1. The documentary is the story of exiled Uighur leader, Rebiya Kadeer. The Uighur are a Muslim minority in China's Xinjiang Province, which they refer to as East Turkestan. Ms Kadeer, who now lives in the United States, has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. China has denounced Ms Kadeer as a terrorist and has accused her of helping to orchestrate recent violence in the Xinjiang region between Muslim Uighur and members of the Chinese Han community. When the documentary screened with Ms Kadeer in attendance at the Melbourne Film Festival it caused a diplomatic row between Australia and China. Chinese Embassy officials in New Zealand today met with Maori Television management and requested they cancel the documentary saying it distorted the facts about China's policies regarding treatment of ethnic minorities. Maori Television chief executive Jim Mather said the meeting was amicable and respectful, but the documentary would still go to air.

I’m sorry, what? The Chinese Government have asked that something NOT be viewed in NZ? Since when the bloody hell were we part of China? They don’t get to tell us what we can and can not watch in our own bloody country! It’s a documentary by an indigenous population currently being treated brutally by the Chinese authorities, if they wish to debate discrepancies within the documentary, they point these things out and argue their corner. To Maori TV’s absolute credit they offered China the opportunity to do just that, but China turned down that offer and simply wished for out right censorship. The audacity is astounding and gives some glimpse of what life living under the largest communist dictatorship on Earth must be for the Uighur, I’m certainly going to watch it now.

We should not tolerate ANY censorship by China regarding ANYTHING we ever view within our borders, how dare they? Well done Maori TV for having the courage to stand up to such interference.