Hong Kong police have joined a probe into the hijacking of satellite signals of Chinese government-run television stations by the Falungong spiritual group.
Falungong, which is banned on the mainland but legal in Hong Kong, is accused of hacking into Chinese programmes to broadcast pro-sect propaganda on several occasions.
The most recent incidents late last month saw programming on 19 state-run networks in China interrupted by Falungong messages, according to mainland officials, baffling TV engineers as to how the sect had pulled off the technologically challenging stunt.
A Chinese information ministry spokesman told the independent Ming Pao daily Wednesday that last month’s satellite hijack was done from overseas, not from the mainland.
Several places including Hong Kong could have been the source of the hijacking, the spokesman said.
Ming Pao said that Hong Kong police had visited satellite television companies as well as Hong Kong’s telecommunications authority to check their records and investigate their operations.
Sophie Xiao, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Falungong, said “this is another of the excuses by Chinese authorities to extend their persecution of Falungong outside China”.
“They have been doing that for quite some time through their embassies and consulates overseas by collecting information on the group,” she told AFP.
“They also use diplomatic channels to stop Falungong activities abroad.”
The hijackings involved two Sinosat satellites belonging to Sino-Satellite Communications, with the hackers breaking codes to uplink with the satellite and then transmit Falungong propaganda on the same frequency as the television stations.
China outlawed Falungong in July 1999 as an “evil cult” but the group has remained legal in autonomous Hong Kong.
