A Hong Kong-based satellite operator has accused the Falun Gong spiritual group, banned in China as an "evil cult", of hacking into one of its satellites to illegally beam transmissions into mainland China.
A Falun Gong spokeswoman in Hong Kong said she did not know anything about the hacking attack.
Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. said in a news release that a transponder on one of its satellites, AsiaSat 38, was deliberately interrupted on Saturday evening by signals carrying "Falun Gong-related content".
The statement said the company was forced to shut down transmissions for more than four hours, disrupting broadcasts by China's Beijing Television and Tianjin Television stations.
"The deliberate attack interfered with the routine transmission of the satellite," the company said. "It seriously violated international telecommunications treaties, contravened international regulations, and was in breach of the normal conduct of satellite operations."
It said it reserved the right to take legal action.
Sharon Xu, spokeswoman for the Falun Gong in Hong Kong, said the group did not know about the hacking incident.
"We haven't heard anything about it," she said. "We know it's very difficult to intercept satellite signals."
Beijing banned the Falun Gong in 1999 after 10,000 members besieged the compound of the Chinese leadership in the capital to demand official recognition for their faith.
But the movement, which combines Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese breathing exercises, remains legal in Hong Kong, a British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
A Falun Gong Website, www.clearwisdom.net, says that in the past five years China has tortured more than 1,121 practitioners to death, jailed at least 6,000 and sent more than 100,000 to labour camps. The figures could not be independently confirmed.
Two years ago, China accused the Falun Gong of hijacking satellite signals to disrupt state media broadcasts, saying it had pinpointed the origin of the disruption to Taiwan.
In Hong Kong, Falun Gong members failed on Monday to obtain permission to win a final appeal against convictions of obstructing and assaulting police. But Xu said they would appeal against the denial of such permission.
The case has raised fears about threats to personal freedoms in Hong Kong, which was promised a high degree of autonomy after Britain returned it to China seven years ago.
Nine Falun Gong members were convicted in 2002 of obstructing police during a protest against Beijing earlier that year and were each fined between HK$1,300 and HK$3,800 (US$166 and US$487). Three were also convicted of assaulting police.
But the group claims that police trampled on their freedom to protest by manhandling them away and that that they were merely defending themselves instead of assaulting police.
This month, the Court of Appeal upheld the convictions although it acquitted the nine people and seven other Falun Gong members of a less serious conviction of causing a public obstruction.