Monthly Archives: December 2019

Stop Apple Censorship Online Press Conference

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Exactly a year after taking part in an online press conference about getting Google to drop Project Dragonfly (update: it was dropped!), several of us got together again yesterday, Human Rights Day, to tackle another tech giant, Apple.

Apple has blocked over 1000 VPNs from its App Store, delisted HKmap.live and banned the use of ‘sensitive’ terms – such as Tibet, Tiananmen and the Dalai Lama – that are blacklisted by the Chinese government from device engravings in its Apple stores in China.

Far from promoting the web as a tool for communication, Apple is facilitating it being used as a tool for incarceration. For details on what Apple has been doing, I recommend reading this report put together by TibCert: https://blog.tibcert.org/apple-app-censorship/

Our panel was made up of myself plus:

World Uyghur Congress Advocate, Zumretay Arkin
GreatFire.org Community Director, Karen Reilly
SumOfUs Senior Campaigner, Sondhya Gupta
Andy Li from Fight for Freedom; Stand with Hong Kong
Tibet Action Institute Digital Security Director, Lobsang Gyatso

Moderated by Free Tibet Campaign Director, John Jones and convened by Mandie Mckeown, International Tibet Network.

Here is the link to the full video, thank you to Mandie and the whole team for having me. Follow the campaign here: https://stopapplecensorship.online/

First Tibet Film Festival in London Took Place in November 2019!

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After ten successful years in Zurich and Dharamsala, the Tibet Film Festival finally came to London in November 2019! It was my honour to co-organise the Tibet Film Festival in London along with Kunsang Kelden and an incredible team of volunteers.

Having attended the Dharamsala Film Festival in the past, we felt it was time for London to have two days completely dedicated to Tibetan filmmakers and Tibetan films. We were fortunate to have amazing venues for the two days, Deptford Cinema in Deptford, Deptford Does Art for the after party and artFix in Woolwich.

I’ll leave the photos on Instagram to speak for themselves. One thing we were proud to squeeze in as well was at the after party, we had participants from our Royal Court Playwriting Workshop read their pieces.

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers and also a special shout out to Tenzin Dasel and Pema Shitsetsang for being our main guests and for the unique work they do in our society.

Highlights from Day One:

Highlights from the after party:

Highlights from Day Two:

Introductions to the Festival:

Thank you to our team!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5B3hJyBfwL/