Dutch European Parliament member Erik Meijer of the socialist party (SP) has demanded that the European commission use its influence to restore New Tang Dynasty Television's (NTDTV) broadcast to China. Meijer brought this up last Friday by raising the question to the European Parliament.
New Tang Dynasty Television, an independent Chinese television broadcaster, has been broadcasting into China through satellite since 2004. On the 16th of June however, viewers in China found themselves unable to receive NTDTV's satellite signal anymore. NTDTV's satellite provider, Paris-based Eutelsat, said that the signal loss was due to a power failure. But according to Meijer "...this coincidently enough happens on the eve before the Olympic Games start".
In his question to the European Parliament, Meijer stated that Eutelsat took NTDTV's signal out of the air because of the company's contracts with Chinese government institutions.
The European Commission has a business relationship with Eutelsat, such as on the Galileo project (a global navigation system currently being built by the European Union). According to Meijer, "The European Commission should use its relation with the company (Eutelsat) to invite the French company to restore and sustain NTDTV's its broadcast as soon as possible [and] before the Olympic Games start."
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