Chinese protest crashes Melbourne festival site
Last Updated: Saturday, August 1, 2009 | 11:49 AM ET
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The website of Australia's biggest film festival has crashed after a campaign originating in China managed to bombard the festival's site with fake purchases.
Online ticket purchasing for the Melbourne International Film Festival was shut down after the site was overwhelmed with phony bookings, causing the entire program to be sold out.
Rebiya Kadeer, shown here in an interview earlier this month with The Associated Press in Washington, is the subject of the documentary, The 10 Conditions of Love. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)
Festival spokeswoman Asha Homes blamed a viral campaign which has its roots from a Chinese website titled, A Call to Action to All Chinese People.
Homes says festivalgoers will have to order in person or through the phone.
The Chinese site instructed participants on how to set up a fake profile to buy tickets. The campaign is a protest against the screening of The 10 Conditions of Love, a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, who lives in Washington D.C.
The 62-year-old Nobel Peace Prize candidate is expected to be at an Aug. 8 screening and will also speak at a workshop presentation.
Only last weekend, a Chinese hacker managed to attack the site, placing a Chinese flag and English-language messages demanding festival organizers pull the documentary.
The Uighurs, a minority Muslim population, have been agitating for independence from China.
Kadeer has been accused by the Chinese government of fomenting protests in early July in Xinjiang that left at least 197 people dead and 1,600 injured.
As a result of the film's inclusion, three Chinese directors pulled their films from the festival and Hong Kong and Taipei's trade offices withdrew their sponsorship.
As well, three other Chinese-language films were pulled:
- Miao Miao, a Hong Kong-Taiwan romance, directed by Cheng Hsiao-Tse.
- The Moss, a Hong Kong black comedy, directed by Derek Kwok.
- Perfect Life by Hong Kong director Emily Tang.
Chinese authorities also urged Australia to rescind its visa approval for Kadeer's visit.
The festival runs through Aug. 9.
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