Australia - China - cinema - Internet

Australian film festival site defaced by Chinese hackers

Sunday 26 July 2009

The website of Australia's biggest film festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, has been defaced by what appears to be Chinese hackers angry against a documentary about a Uighur activist.

AFP - Chinese hackers sabotaged the website of Australia's biggest film festival over plans to screen a documentary about a Uighur activist China accuses of stirring unrest, a report said Sunday.
  
Hackers attacked the Melbourne International Film Festival website on Saturday, replacing information with the Chinese flag and leaving slogans criticising exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, The Age newspaper reported.
  
Chinese directors have already withdrawn their films over the August 8 screening of the Kadeer documentary and festival director Richard Moore has accused Chinese officials of trying to bully him into pulling the documentary.
  
The Age reported that festival staff had been inundated with abusive emails over Moore's refusal to withdraw the film and cancel Kadeer's invitation to attend the screening.
  
"The language has been vile," Moore told the newspaper. "It is obviously a concerted campaign to get us because we've refused to comply with the Chinese government's demands."
  
He said police were investigating the website attacks, which appeared to come from a Chinese Internet address, and private security guards would be on hand to protect Kadeer and film-goers at next month's screening.
  
The website appeared to be working normally Sunday and festival organisers were not immediately available for comment.
  
Kadeer, the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress, is the subject of the documentary "Ten Conditions of Love" by Australian Jeff Daniels.
  
The Chinese government accuses her of masterminding violent unrest that broke out in China's northwestern Xinjiang region on July 5 that left more than 190 people dead. She denies the charges.
  
The Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority group who mainly live in western Xinjiang province, complain of political and religious repression under Chinese rule.
  
Chinese directors Tang Xiaobai and Jia Zhangke withdrew their films from the festival last week, citing the Kadeer documentary's inclusion.
  
Tang said she decided to boycott the event after receiving calls from government officials but insisted she was not pressured and the decision was her own.