On April 15, 2005, Europe’s largest satellite provider is scheduled to terminate New Tang Dynasty's broadcast into Asia. NTD’s broadcast is currently the only uncensored news in the Chinese language available in China today. By refusing to provide the only uncensored broadcast news into China, Eutelsat declared that the world’s biggest violator of media freedom will now control all broadcast content that Europe’s biggest satellite company broadcasts into Asia.

In order to maintain NTDTV’s transmission to Asia, NTDTV’s worldwide team have been working hard to collect petitions from the public to show concern towards this matter.

NTDTV Malaysia Bureau is here today to submit signatures that we have collected locally for the past few days to the Honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs, YB Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar to show local support towards NTDTV. We hope the Malaysia government will help protect the rights of free expression and maintain NTDTV’s transmission to Asia. So far we have collected over 14,000 signatures.

Besides, we have also collected signatures that are going to be submitted to President Bush as the global effort of NTDTV to collect petitions worldwide. This campaign is expected to be going on after 15 April 2005.

Despite Eutelsat’s claims that they are purely making a commercial decision to terminate NTDTV's broadcast, all evidence indicates that this decision is a direct result of intense pressure from Beijing, coupled with lucrative reward. In December of 2004, Eutelsat signed an historic partnership agreement to with the Chinese Ministry of Information.

Eutelsat is in violation of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, as well as the Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, regarding free expression and universal information access. Eutelsat’s own Inter-Governmental Convention bylaws require equal access, non-discrimination and respect for pluralism, and NTDTV is clearly in compliance with those rules.

Eutelsat has opened the door for all repressive governments to censor the content of every channel on every satellite that broadcasts into its territory. As Eutelsat Chairman Giuliano Berretta emphasized when he met with NTDTV’s Board of Directors last year, censoring broadcasts would be a dangerous practice for his company's business model, and indeed for the satellite industry as a whole.

We continue to believe that the rights of free expression, free commerce and free flow of information are universal rights, and that these rights must be protected by free societies. Our viewers in Asia, including in China, have a right to know the truth, which their government clearly does not want them to know, and which is only available at this time in their own country through NTDTV’s broadcasts.

We believe that the free flow of information into repressive societies like China benefits freedom throughout the world. We hope the Malaysia government will help protect the rights of free expression and keep NTDTV on the air.