Organisers forced to sign documents promising not to hold festival, as China’s crackdown on freedom of speech continues
Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing
The Guardian, Sunday 24 August 2014 08.42 EDT
Li Xianting, Beijing independent film festival organiser, shows a document issued after his release from detention by police. Photograph: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
Chinese authorities have shut down the country’s most prominent independent film festival for the first time in its 11-year history, raising concerns about a wide-ranging government crackdown on freedom of speech and civil society.
The Beijing independent film festival, one of China’s leading platforms for the distribution of independent films, has suffered official interference nearly every year since its inception. In previous years, the organisers have simply changed venues or replaced large public events with smaller screenings in private homes.
On Saturday afternoon, about 15 police officers, security guards and rough-looking men in plain clothes stood outside of the office of the festival’s organiser, the Li Xianting Film Fund, in a dusty alleyway in suburban Beijing, shoving away the few dozen people who tried to attend.
When a small crowd of directors and would-be audience members gathered on a nearby road, the plainclothes men walked over and demanded they disperse. The men grabbed mobile phones from onlookers and scrolled through saved photos, deleting images of the incident.
“Which agency are you from?” shouted an onlooker.
“We’re villagers,” one of the men replied.