WASHINGTON, March 25, 2004�Chinese authorities have launched a politicalre-education program at an official television station in the Tibetancapital of Lhasa after it broadcast shots containing the Tibetan national flag, which is banned in Tibet under Chinese rule, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.
The offending footage was broadcast around 8 p.m. Feb. 21, the first day ofnew year in the Tibetan calendar, by Lhasa-based Tibet TV3. It showed aTibetan man in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu with a huge Tibetan nationalflag behind him. The program was titled "Wonders of the Earth,� a sourcefamiliar with the incident told RFA�s Tibetan service.
Sources close to the incident say the footage was broadcast inadvertentlyafter a member of the news staff of the Han Chinese ethnicity failed to identify theflag in the background. The image was broadcast for just under five seconds.A retired member of the television station staff spotted the flag andreported to Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) television authorities that ithad been broadcast, sources said.
The program sparked an outcry among Chinese officials. The director of TibetTV3 was demoted but no one was detained. They were told toacknowledge their mistake at a meeting at the TAR Department of Informationand Communication, sources said. Most of the junior staff at the stationwere ethnic Han Chinese, working part-time. All staff must now undergore-education and write self-criticisms acknowledging their error.
One source said the program was originally made in China and later sent toTibet TV3, but no further details were available.
Tibet TV3�s officials declined to comment when contacted by RFA.
Beijing has recently banned a book on Tibet in Chinese that touches onsensitive religious issues, including how the exiled Dalai Lama is stillrevered by Tibetans inside Tibet, a London-based rights group said reported.
�Notes on Tibet,� written in Chinese by the Tibetan author Oser, was bannedlate last year after Oser tried to get it published in the southern Chineseprovince of Guangdong, where the political climate is usually more tolerant,the Tibet Information Network said.
The book, a collection of 38 essays describing the author's encounters withdifferent people and places in Tibet, contained 10 essays consideredsufficiently contentious to warrant banning the book.
The author previously worked at the Chinese-language journal �TibetanLiterature in Lhasa� but has fled the Tibetan capital over the controversysurrounding her book.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's religious and political leader, fled Lhasa in1959 after an unsuccessful revolt against Chinese rule. He is now the headof the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala, India.
RFA broadcasts news and information to Asian listeners who lack regularaccess to full and balanced reporting in their domestic media. Through itsbroadcasts and call-in programs, RFA aims to fill a critical gap in thelives of people across Asia.
Created by Congress in 1994 and incorporated in 1996, RFA currentlybroadcasts in Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Mandarin, the Wudialect, Vietnamese, Tibetan (Uke, Amdo, and Kham), and Uyghur. It adheresto the highest standards of journalism and aims to exemplify accuracy,balance and fairness in its editorial content.#####