"NTDTV" redirects here. For the television station in the Northern Territory, Australia, seeNTD (Australian TV station). For the major television station in India, seeNDTV.
Television channel
NTD Television
Type
Global Television Network
Broadcast area
USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, China, Taiwan and more
Headquarters
229 W. 28th Street, Suite 700,New York City, NY 10001
The Christian Science Monitor in 2004 called NTD "the first independent Chinese-language TV station in the US".[20]The Wall Street Journal said in 2007 that NTD "serves as a platform for China's pro-democracy dissidents, who have been torn by internal squabbling and lack of organization".[21]
In 2009, NTD had an income of $5.3 million, including $2.4 million from 3,000 donations. In 2011, NTD had a staff of 80, nearly all volunteers.[22]
By 2016, NTD's revenues were $7.4 million. In 2017, they more than doubled to $18 million, according to reports from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.[23][3]
NTD started broadcasting to the UK on Sky TV on February 22, 2021[24] on channel 190 (previously used forMyTV channel), and subsequently onFreeview channel 271.
As of 2022, NTD reached about 6 million US households.[4]
NTD, along withThe Epoch Times andSound of Hope, was founded by Falun Gong practitioners who had immigrated to the West. Many of its staff are Falun Gong adherents who volunteer their time and services. In an interview with theWall Street Journal, the former president Zhong Lee stated that the company's original purpose was to "speak as the voiceof Falun Gong", but that "media can also play a big role pushingdemocracy in China".[18]
NTD is one of the organizations that Falun Gong founderLi Hongzhi has referred to as "our media", along withThe Epoch Times newspaper and theShen Yun dance troupe.[3][25]
NTD broadcasts programming regularly on its moderated YouTube channels, which includeNTD Evening News,NTD Business News, China in Focus,Capital Report,NTD UK News and other shows.[26]
In 2019, NTD released a docudrama produced bySteve Bannon, the formerBreitbart News chairman and advisor toDonald Trump. The film,Claws of the Red Dragon, is about the telecom companyHuawei and the Chinese government.[27][28] Bannon said that, in his dealings with NTD, the group was always able to provide enough funding when he asked for it.[29]
Promotion of misinformation and conspiracy theories
On April 7, 2020, NTD uploaded a video released byThe Epoch Times.[33] The video was flagged by Facebook as "partly false" for "the unsupported hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 is a bioengineered virus released from a Wuhan research laboratory." The video featuredJudy Mikovits, an anti-vaccination activist.[33][34] The fact-checker Health Feedback said of the video that "several of its core scientific claims are false and its facts, even when accurate, are often presented in a misleading way".[35]
On August 6, 2020, Facebook removed hundreds of fake accounts by a digital company called TruthMedia that promotedEpoch Times and NTD content andpro-Trump conspiracy theories aboutCOVID-19 andprotests in the United States.[36][37] The operation included 303 Facebook accounts, 181 pages, 44 Facebook groups and 31Instagram accounts,[38] which in total were followed by more than 2 million people.[37]Snopes andNBC News reported that TruthMedia had ties to the Epoch Media Group,[39][37] but Stephen Gregory, publisher ofThe Epoch Times, denied this.[37]
In September 2022, NTD promoted rumors that a "coup" againstXi Jinping had occurred and that he was underhouse arrest. The rumors went viral on social media.[42] Xi made a public appearance on September 27, after a brief absence since mid-September.[43]
In January 2008, the Chinese embassy in the United States discouraged viewers from watching or attending NTD'sChinese New Year galas and accused NTD of spreading "anti-China propaganda" and "distorting Chinese culture".[44]
In June 2008, the media watchdogReporters Without Borders (RSF) accusedEutelsat, a European satellite operator, of closing down transmissions of NTD to Asia through itsW5 satellite to appease the Chinese government,[45] and appealed to Eutelsat CEO Giuliano Berretta to resume the broadcasts. RSF said it possessed a recording of a Beijing employee of Eutelsat revealing a "premeditated, politically motivated decision".[45] Eutelsat responded that the shutdown resulted solely from a technical failure of its W5 satellite, denied the validity[verification needed] of the conversation alleged by RSF, and said that it still broadcast NTD to Europe.[46][47] TheInternational Federation of Journalists said Eutelsat was capable of resuming NTD transmissions to Asia, and it and members of the European Parliament[verification needed] called on Eutelsat to do so.[48][46]
On July 25, 2012, NTD Television officially launchedNTD Canada, a local Canadian channel for Chinese viewers in Canada.[51]
In June 2010, theCanadian Prime Minister's Office canceled a press conference that NTD andThe Epoch Times would have attended so thatGeneral Secretary of the Chinese Communist PartyHu Jintao would not come into contact with the broadcaster, allegedly following terms from the Chinese consulate. According to theToronto Star, such press conferences are usually a standard procedure for foreign leaders visiting the Parliament, and the cancellation was seen as an extraordinary measure to keep NTD away from theChinese leader.[52]
^abLawrence, Susan V. (April 14, 2004)."Falun Gong Fields Media Weapons".The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company.Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. RetrievedMarch 25, 2018.
^abCallery, James; Goddard, Jacqui (August 23, 2021)."Most-clicked link on Facebook spread doubt about Covid vaccine".The Times.ISSN0140-0460.Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. RetrievedDecember 22, 2021.Facebook's data on the first quarter of this year shows that one of its most popular pages was an article byThe Epoch Times, a far-right newspaper that has promoted QAnon conspiracy theories and misleading claims of voter fraud related to the 2020 US election.
^abWaldman, Scott (August 27, 2021)."Climate denial newspaper flourishes on Facebook".E&E News.Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. RetrievedJanuary 8, 2022.The Epoch Times, a far-right newspaper that echoes anti-vaccine messages and promoted former President Trump's false election claims, received 44.2 million views between April and June for a page that offers to sign up subscribers, according to a report released by Facebook last week.
^"The battle in miniature".The Economist. October 10, 2020.ISSN0013-0613.Archived from the original on October 8, 2020. RetrievedJune 20, 2022.she got her news from the far-right One America News Network andEpoch Times, a pro-Trump newspaper produced by the Falun Gong sect that has spread the anti-Semitic QAnon conspiracy.
