20/05/2010 |
Police authorisation required for printing or photocopying any documents in Tibetan
A new administrative measure in Tibet that requires printers to obtain detailed personal information from anyone wishing to print or photocopy documents plus a description of the content to be printed and the number of copies to be printed was announced in the Lhasa Evening News on 10 May. China Daily newspaper reports that “Local police will regularly check how effective the new measures are being implemented [sic].” (1)
According to the new measure printing shops cannot print anything without making a record of a description of the content, but in reality the law goes even further: printing shop operatives told a Tibetan caller that the police had forbidden them from printing anything in Tibetan without permission from the police. When the Tibetan caller told a printing shop on Beijing Middle Road in Lhasa that he was a monk who wanted to photocopy Buddhist scriptures the owner replied:
“Oh, that thing can not be copied. We had a meeting in main people’s armed police. Police order us not to print Tibetan. So we don’t copy Tibetan [sic].” (2)
Free Tibet commissioned a Tibetan researcher to call printers in Lhasa and other Tibetan Autonomous Regions to investigate (3). In different calls he asked to copy different types of documents under a variety of pretexts. For instance in one call he wanted to copy agricultural documents for a non-government organisation whilst in another, mentioned above, he asked for religious documents to be copied. In all except one instance where the printer was unaware of the new regulation, the printers refused to print documents in Tibetan without the caller first getting permission from the police. This response from a print-shop worker in Nakchu, capital of Nakchu Prefecture, is typical:
“The rule banned copying Tibetan unless we know what content to copy. The police will check it. So we don’t have translator. The rule says the translator must be one of our own staff. But we don’t have any staff who can translate Tibetan language. We can’t copy written word we don’t understand.[sic]”
This response also highlights the marginalisation of Tibetans and the Tibetan language in Tibet; printing shops, like most businesses, are owned and run by Chinese migrants who do not read or understand the language of the country in which they are living - Tibetan.
The new measure adds to the climate of intimidation and fear in Tibet. It is clearly designed to limit dissent and the dissemination of any kind of information by Tibetans whilst also stopping printers from providing even basic business services to Tibetans.
Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden commented:
“This measure, enforced by local police, tightens the gag on Tibetans in Tibet, further distancing them from an ordinary life doing ordinary things that we take for granted. Tibet is not only an occupied country. It is a police state whose reality could hardly be further from the ‘heavenly Tibet’ that China is trying to portray with its Tibet pavilion at the Shanghai Expo."
Ends
For further information:
Stephanie Brigden, Director
t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 and email: stephanie@freetibet.org
Notes
(1) http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-05/19/content_9865320.htm