Hackers attack Melbourne Film Festival website

HACKERS have defaced the website of the Melbourne Film Festival over a documentary about an exiled separatist leader accused by China of plotting riots.

Messages attacking Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, along with images of the Chinese flag, were posted on the festival’s site over the weekend.

Festival director Richard Moore said the intruders were using a Chinese IP address and he had reported the matter to police.

Mr Moore said the attacks came after pressure from the Chinese Government to remove the film from the festival.

“This has been going on… since obviously the call from a Chinese consular official who told me in no uncertain terms that I was urged to withdraw this particular documentary,” Mr Moore told the BBC.

The Australian documentary, titled The 10 Conditions of Love, follows Ms Kadeer’s family as she campaigns for China’s Uighur population.