With the world’s eyes turned towards Tibet due to the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, Chinese authorities have gone to undertaken many efforts to impose the official version of events.

Last Friday, a reporter and a cameraman of NTDTV (New Tang Dynasty Television) were denied entrance to a press conference in downtown Toronto organized by the Consulate General of China. The event was held to mark the visit of the Chinese National People’s Congress official Tibetan Delegation. Despite a valid invitation and intervention from the President of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, the Acting Council General of the Consulate confiscated the invitation and ordered the police and hotel security to have the NTDTV employees escorted out of the hotel premises.

A New York-based TV station affiliated with the Falun Gong spiritual movement, NTDTV began broadcasting in Chinese five years ago. Its programmes differ from the content on China’s state TV stations ; there is a considerable of coverage of human rights issues, including the repression in Tibet and of religious groups such as Falungong and the underground Christian churches.