Ain’t communism great?
Via CNS News:
Chinese authorities on Saturday blocked an annual independent film festival from opening, seized documents and films from its organizers’ office and hauled away two event officials. The move against a rare venue where films critical of the government could be screened is seen as a sign that Beijing is stepping up its already tight ideological controls.
Li Xianting, a film critic and founder of the Li Xianting Film Fund, the organizer of the Beijing Independent Film Festival, said police searched his office and confiscated materials he had gathered over more than 10 years. Li and the festival’s artistic director, Wang Hongwei, were later detained by police, according to their supporters.
The festival, which began in 2006, has seen severe police obstruction over the past few years, but this year’s crackdown is far more serious, Wang said earlier Saturday.
“In the past few years when they forced us to cancel the festival, we just moved it to other places, or delayed the screenings,” he said. “But this year, we cannot carry on with the festival. It is completely forbidden.”