Organisers of an annual independent film festival in China said on Saturday that authorities had blocked it from opening. The Beijing Independent Film Festival has become a rare and influential venue for the showing of movies that could be critical of the government.
The artistic director, Wang Hongwei, said authorities had forced the cancellation of the event, which was scheduled to run through to 31 August.
"In the past few years when they forced us to cancel the festival, we just moved it to other places, or delayed a day the screening. But this year, we cannot carry on with the festival, it is completely forbidden," he said.
Police in the Beijing suburb of Songzhuang, where the event was supposed to open, said on Saturday that they were unaware the festival had been cancelled. ......