Contact is taking a holiday!

The Tibetan National Flag was blurred before the release date on the 11th of November 2011, of director Imtiaz Ali’s new film, “Rockstar.” This controversial decision by India’s Film Censor Board to blur or remove images of Tibetan banners and flags throughout the film has sparked Tibetan demonstrations in India and abroad. It has also provoked a discussion around whether such censorship will in fact achieve the opposite effect of increasing awareness of the Tibetan political situation through the controversy it has sparked.
Dorjee Tseten, the director of India’s chapter of Students for Free Tibet, stated, “By caving in to Chinese pressure, the Censor Board is allowing China to threaten the freedom and liberties that Indians enjoy.” Further, “-one would expect India to be promoting and protecting the Tibetan people’s basic human rights, not censoring their struggle in a free country simply because China demands it to be done.”
Tseten is not the only advocate who feels frustration with the Board’s decision. Shashi Tharoor, former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and current Member of Indian Parliament, has expressed that “-the censors undermined our Government’s standard explanation to Beijing that in our democracy we cannot control or restrict our media.”
Tibetan activists across India are gathering and rallying in protest of the film. Also, Nepal is being closely monitored by the Chinese government, having been told that it could pose a threat to China’s security if protests were to continue. The Nepali media remains silent, perhaps unwilling to antagonize China, resulting in frustration among those who feel the struggle the Tibetans are facing both inside and out of Tibet must be publicized. As Tenzin Tsundue, Tibetan activist and writer in Dharamsala, has noted in recent days, “The police in Kathmandu have been extra alert. Nepal is so much under Chinese pressure to act (tough).”
The blurring of the Tibetan flag in such a long-awaited popular film comes on the heels of a troubling season for Tibetans around the world. Twelve monks and nuns have self-immolated in this year alone, as a statement to the world of the oppression that Tibetans are facing inside Tibet as a result of China’s restrictive policies. India’s decision to hide from Chinese pressure instead of asserting itself as the democracy it is seems to be just more proof of the level