FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 08 August 2021
English Media Contact: Pema Doma | +1 (617) 792-3606 | PemaDoma@studentsforafreetibet.org
Mandarin/Cantonese/English Media Contact: Joey Siu | +1 (202) 375-8571 | Joey@HongKongWatch.org
Students for a Free Tibet calls on the media giant to end their collaboration with the Olympics and refuse to air the “Genocide Games.”
***Photos and videos available at http://bit.ly/SFTMedia123
New York – At around 1:00pm EST dozens of Tibetan, Uyghur, and Hongkonger activists entered NBC’s merchandise store at Rockefeller Center. Suddenly, activists began chanting and threw flyers around the store calling on NBC not to air the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. One of the student activists, a New York-based Tibetan-American teenager, read the group’s statement.
“By allowing the CCP to have a platform to broadcast and legitimize their heinous crimes against humanity, NBC is saying that the oppression, ethnic cleansing, and genocide occurring among Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hongkongers, Taiwanese, Southern Mongolians, and many more communities in China is okay,” said Tsering Yangchen as she read part of the statement. “We call upon all humans of conscience to join our movement and show that genocide should be a red line. NBC, do the right thing!”
Shortly after finishing Yangchen’s statement, the activists were given a dispersal order by the NYPD to leave the premises. While chanting “NBC: Here’s a tip! Drop your Beijing sponsorship!” and “NBC: Shame on you,” they slowly began to march out of the store. Activists then continued to chant while walking around Rockefeller Center in order to pressure NBC to stand with the communities oppressed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.
Tenzin Yangzom, SFT Grassroots Coordinator, who was present at the protest said:
“As the Olympic torch is handed from Tokyo to Beijing, the attention of the global community must focus on how these Games will legitimize China’s genocide and occupations. NBC has no business partnering with the Chinese government to broadcast the Olympic Games while that very government is simultaneously committing genocide against the Uyghur people and carrying out an unprecedented campaign of repression in Tibet, Hong Kong and beyond.”
NBC is the sole American company with rights to broadcast the Olympic Games. Today’s action is part of the global No Beijing 2022 campaign, a coordinated movement driven by Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hongkongers, and other allies who are calling for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
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