A Paris court has thrown out a claim by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) that Eutelsat Communications removed it from the satellite because its coverage was out of step with the views of the Chinese authorities.
NTDTV went off the air following an anomaly with the Eutelsat W5 satellite over the night of June 16 and 17, 2008. Problems with the satellite’s solar arrays led to the shut down of four of the satellite’s 24 transponders.
The Tribunal de Commerce of Paris backed Eutelsat in its stance that it had not acted in a discriminatory manner and had based its approach solely on technical and economic considerations.
In a statement Eutelsat noted that NTDTV continues to broadcast from the Hot Bird orbital position.
