News

Screenshot of the Statement by CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) yesterday released a statement expressing their concern for Jigme Gyatso (aka Golog Jigme) who is feared detained. Jigme Gyatso was last heard of on September 20, 2012.

“We are concerned about the whereabouts of Jigme Gyatso, who has been harassed and detained in the past for making a film,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia program coordinator. “All too often, Tibetan journalists are detained without due process, and Gyatso’s disappearance is a reminder that even if they are freed, the fear of re-arrest is constant.”

Read the full statement by CPJ here: https://www.cpj.org/2012/10/missing-colleague-of-tibetan-filmmaker-causes-conc.php

Proud and worried, say supporters and family 

Zurich/London/San Francisco – Filming for Tibet is extremely happy about today’s announcement by Committee to Protect Journalists that Dhondup Wangchen, along with three others, is an awardee of 2012 CPJ International Press Freedom Award.

Gyaljong Tsetrin, Dhondup Wangchen’s cousin living in Switzerland and President of “Filming for Tibet” said: “We are very proud to hear that Dhondup Wangchen has been awarded with the CPJ International Press Freedom Award. This award highlights his commitment to bringing the voices of ordinary Tibetans, who are suffering under Chinese occupation and longing for freedom, to the fore in 2008, which came at enormous personal cost.”

“His immense courage and dedication for his people has made him a role model for many young Tibetans. This award is also a reminder of the hundreds, if not thousands, of political prisoners inside Tibet imprisoned for peacefully expressing their views”, Tsetrin continued.

Lhamo Tso, Dhondup Wangchen’s wife, presently in the US is also extremely gratified about the news: “I am very happy that my husband’s works receives this amount of international acknowledgement. It is for the family a bit of a solace knowing that my husband has not been forgotten by good-hearted people around the world. I and my children are very worried about his health, pray for his early release and hope to see him soon in good health condition.”

Along with Dhondup Wangchen, the three other awardees are Mauri König, Brazil, Mae Azango, Liberia and imprisoned journalist Azimjon Askarov, Kyrgyzstan. The awardees will be honored at CPJ’s annual awards dinner in New York City on November 20, 2012.

See for info:
http://cpj.org/awards/2012/honoring-tenacity-and-courage.php
www.filmingfortibet.org

Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden has won the “Best Narrative Feature” for his movie “Old Dog” (Khyi rgan) at the Brooklyn Film Festival which concluded yesterday. Old Dog will be one of the high-lights of this year’s Tibet Film Festival (TFF) in Zurich and Dharamsala from 26 till 28 October 2012.

Competing with more than 100 premieres from nearly 30 countries, “Old Dog” was voted amongst the best at the June 1 – 10, 2012 Festival, winning a total of US $57,000 in prizes and film services.

See for more information on Brooklin Film Festival and Old Dog here.

Synopsis
A Tibetan sheep herder sells his father’s prized Tibetan mastiff to a dealer without his father’s approval. When his father finds out, he must travel into a frontier town to retrieve the dog that he raised for 12 years and is deeply attached to. The relation between father and son is turned upside down, and the mastiff has to be guarded at all times from dog-nappers and dealers who constantly harass the family with ever increasing offers. “Old Dog” is a poetic story about Tibet’s changing society, where old values are in direct conflict with new.

Pema Tseden
Pema Tseden was born in 1969 in Amdo, the Tibetan region (Qinghai province). He is a member of the Chinese Film Directors’ Association, Chinese Filmmakers’ Association and Chinese Film Literature Association. He studied in the Northwest University for Nationalities, Beijing Film Academy and Lu Xun College respectively. He has earned a Master’s Degree in Literature and Arts. Since 1991, Pema Tseden has published more than 50 pieces of short and medium-length novels both in Tibetan and Chinese. Some of his works have been translated into English, French and German among other languages. Some of them won the Tibetan literature prize Drang-char (sbrang-char) and the Rookie award for Chinese Contemporary Ethnic Literature. In 2002, Pema Tseden began his film career. His feature films are The Grassland (2004), The Silent Holy Stones (2005), The Search (2009) and Old Dog (2010). His films won numerous awards.

This US visit was very important for her. She met a lot of people and feels encouraged to go on with her mission to free her husband.

Filming for Tibet would like to thank Committee of 100, ICT, Amnesty International USA, State of Control production, SFT, RTYC NY, TANC, BAFoT and the many other Tibetan and individual supporters groups  in New York, Washington, Boston and California for their great program and also for the kindness and friendship that they extended to her.

There were some positive developments such as Dhondup Wangchen being named by the State Departement as one of the prominent cases of people who are put in prison because they fought for the right to express their views freely. We hope that his release will be soon!

Her next stop will be Canada. Click here for her detailed itinerary.

For inquiries and media request contact: info(at)leavingfearbehind.com

Lhamo Tso with Tenzin Seldon (SFT) at the Amnesty event “Get on the Bus”
New York, 27 May 2012

Victoria Nuland, state department spokesperson highlights Dhondup Wangchen’s case on April 20, 2012 in view of UNESCO World Press Freedom Day on May 5th.

On the website humanrights.gov Dhondups case is prominently discussed. It says: “As World Press Freedom Day approaches on May 3, journalists are being silenced around the world. In too many places, journalists are imprisoned, attacked, intimidated, murdered or disappeared for trying to report the news or exercise freedom of expression.”

At the daily briefing on April 20, 2012, Mrs. Nuland mentioned right at the beginning Dhondup Wangchen’s case: “Today’s case is the case of Dhondup Wangchen, who is a Tibetan filmmaker who was detained by Chinese authorities on March 8^th on charges related to the production of his 25-minute documentary film titled, “Leaving Fear Behind.” He was reportedly beaten, deprived of food and sleep during his interrogation, and held incommunicado for a full year. You can see his full story on our website.”

Daily briefing of the State Departement

Website Humanrights.gov

Lhamo Tso, wife of Dhondup Wangchen, was invited for a studio interview by the Tibetan Service of Voice of America. She spoke about the current situation of her husband and demanded his release, discussed circumstances of the detention of Dhondup Wangchen, the making of the documentary film.

Relaxing after the interview with VOA staff.

The past few day, Lhamo Tso has participated in the “Tibet Lobby Day” and visited several US congressmen and informed them about the situation of political prisoners in Tibet and about her husband’s fate.

For more information about Tibet Lobby Day click here.

Sign here the petition for Dhondup Wangchen’s release  

Lhamo Tso demands release of her husband Dhondup Wangchen

(AFP, New York) The wife of detained Tibetan documentary maker Dhondup Wangchen broke down in tears Friday in New York as she blamed Chinese rule for a wave of self-immolations by protesters in her homeland.

Lhamo Tso, a petite woman who last spoke to her husband in 2008, appealed for help at an open-air press conference held in Times Square, where excerpts of Wangchen’s banned documentary, “Leaving Fear Behind,” were also shown.

Also read  this post by John Flynn

She said her husband’s imprisonment was an example of Chinese oppression that human rights activists say has driven some 25 ordinary people to set fire to themselves.

“Why are they doing this? Why are they burning their own bodies? Their life is the most important thing they have,” Tso, 40, said. “When I hear that Tibetans are self-immolating, I feel a knife through my heart.”

Tso, who lives in exile in India and was on US soil for the first time in her life, spoke forcefully for several minutes against the dazzling backdrop of the Times Square advertising jumbotrons, including an especially prominent one publicizing the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

But her composure did not last as she described her husband’s trial without a legal defense team and reports that he has become sick while serving his six-year sentence.

“I want to ask for your help in the release of my husband — in the release of my husband and in the release of other political prisoners in Tibet,” she said through an interpreter, her eyes filling with tears.

“I’m here in the center of the United States,” she added, sobbing now, “but my heart and mind are always with my husband.”

US-Tibetan activists at the press conference said they would march on Saturday through New York and in cities around the world to mark the 53rd anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

Organizers of Friday’s event said they chose Times Square to increase the visibility and specifically to counter the “official government point of view” unspooling over the Xinhua screen on a skyscraper.

But the venue brought challenges, including the distractions of the giant commercials for everything from lingerie to Disney toys and persistent heckling by an elderly American man carrying a Chinese flag and copies of the state-run English-language newspaper China Today.

“Dalai Lama — CIA,” the man kept shouting, sometimes making it almost impossible for the activists to make themselves heard.

“This is America, the land of free speech. If we were doing this in Tibet, we’d all be shot, including the gentleman over there,” Jigme Ugen, a Tibetan-American youth leader said in response.

Tenzin Tsundue, a writer and prominent activist, said he understood that the Chinese-US economic stakes were too big for Washington to intervene directly over Tibet, but he asked Americans to consider what “made in China” on products meant.

“China is the biggest slave owner in the world,” he charged. “They work 16 and 17 hours in a day and people in China are underpaid…, underpaid and made to work like slaves.”

Tibetans have long chafed at China’s rule, accusing Beijing of trying to destroy their culture and language by settling huge numbers of ethnic-Chinese.

Tensions have increased markedly this year. Western parts of Sichuan — which borders the Tibet autonomous region and has a large population of ethnic Tibetans — have been hit by deadly bouts of unrest in recent months.

Beijing is particularly keen to avoid any protests during this year’s parliamentary meeting — the last before a major transition of power in the autumn — which coincides with the anniversaries of the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile in 1959 and deadly riots in Tibet in 2008.

Authorities have imposed controls similar to martial law in parts of the Tibetan-inhabited regions, increasing surveillance of monasteries and curtailing phone and Internet communications.

China blames the Dalai Lama of inciting the self-immolations in a bid to split Tibet from the rest of the nation.

Many Tibetans who traveled to India in January with valid passports to attend the Dalai Lama’s teachings have been detained on their return to China and made to undergo political re-education, rights groups say.

Read this post by John Flynn

Lhamo Tso, wife of Tibetan political prisoner and filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen, will screen portions of her husband’s film on a 19 feet video screen in Times Square, New York. The screening will take place beneath the large screen on which Xinhua, the Chinese government news agency, presents the official government point of view.

Lhamo Tso says: «My children and I am grateful for all the support shown by groups, governments and individuals all over the world. However, I want my husband’s immediate and safe release and I hope that my journey through North America will help to reach this goal. I am convinced that the concern shown by the people all over the world will make a difference.»

Other special guests will include: Tenzin Tsundue, prominent Tibetan poet and activist and Tenzin Seldon, Tibetan-American activist and Rhodes Scholar.

It is said that he event will be covered live on the internet.

Lhamo Tso arrived in New York a few days ago. She will be touring North America and Canada on the invitation of groups such as Amnesty International, producers of the documentary film “State of Control”, International Campaign for Tibet, Committee of 100, Canada Tibet Committee (Victoria) and SFT Canada.

On 1 November 2011, around 3 p.m (Tibet Local Time), Lhaten received a telephone call from a Chinese lady teacher from Taktse County Primary School, where his son is studying, asking him to get his son. When he went to get his son from the school, several civilian dressed policemen were waiting for him at the school. The school gatekeeper reportedly said that they took him away in a black car when Lhaten’s relatives inquired.

Lhaten, around 44 years old, was suspected of having connection with Dhondup Wangchen, a Tibetan film maker who was sentenced to six years imprisonment, charged of ‘subversion’ for making a documentary titled ‘Leaving Fear Behind’ ahead of the 2008 Olympics.

A farmer and the sole bread earner of his family, Lhaten lives with his wife Passang Choedon and their three children in Shingtsang Village, Taktse County, Lhasa Municipal (Tibetan Autonomous Region).

He continues to remain ‘disappeared’ since he was arbitrarily arrested. Currently, there is no information about his health and his whereabouts.

Source: http://tchrd.org/press/2011/pr20111118.html