By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, July 28: A Tibetan language news portal in exile with considerable readership inside Tibet has shut down amid concerns of Chinese government clampdown on readers inside Tibet, as well as financial and resource woes.
Tibet Rooster (Bhod ki de pho) in a statement issued July 22 said it is shutting down its website, social media platforms and micro-messaging engagements over concerns of Chinese government heavy-handedness and clampdown on its readers inside Tibet. The statement lamented that its content has unfortunately become a source of obstacle for some people and continue to be a cause for persecution.
Speaking to Phayul, Tibetan Rooster’s lone content creator and editor Tamding Tsetan said, “Since our content has become a tool for the Chinese government to persecute and harass Tibetans inside Tibet, I felt it necessary to shut down operations. The decision has weighed heavily on me.”
Running the website and its social media as well as micro-messaging engagements alone has also been difficult without steady revenue stream, Tamding said. “Until sometime, there was a limited funding from Tibet Fund, and that has also ceased. Without income and manpower, it is not possible to continue operations,” he added. The site has a respectable and steady growth of readers in exile as well, catering primarily to the Tibetan-language based readers.
The Tibetan Rooster, Tamding claimed, has a good and steady rise of readership inside Tibet as well with few social media and micro-messaging pages that voluntarily shared his content on a regular basis. For the safety of those who continue to be affected by the Chinese clampdown, Taming refused to share any details on the matter.
The site was founded four and a half years ago in 2017 and has over 39,050 man-hours put in for its content. 12,546 people follows its Facebook page and has close to 9000 subscribers on Youtube with 713,648 views for the channel. Its daily website clicks averaged close to 2500 clicks.
4 Responses
ཧ་ཅང་ཕངས་པོ་རེད། ད་དུང་བརྒྱུད་ལམ་གཞན་ཞིག་གི་ཐོག་ནས་ཕེབས་པའི་རེ་བ་ཡོད། སྒེར་བདག་ཚད་ལྡན་དང་མི་དམངས་མང་པོས་རམ་འདེགས་གཏན་གཏན་གནང་གི་རེད། ཡིད་ཆེས་བྱོས། རྟ་མགྲིན་ལགས་སེམས་ཤུགས་མ་ཆག་རོགས། རིག་པ་འགྲིམས་ཤོག ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་གསར་འགྱུར་དེ་ངོ་མ་མི་དམངས་ལ་སློབ་གསོ་དང་རྨོངས་གཉིད་ལས་གྲོལ་བའི་སྨན་ཆེན་རང་རེད་འདུག རིན་ཆེན་རིལ་བུ་དེ་དབྱུགས་མ་བཞག་རོགས། ཐུགས་རྗེ་གཟིགས།།
ཧ་ཅང་ཕངས་པོ་རེད། ད་དུང་བརྒྱུད་ལམ་གཞན་ཞིག་གི་ཐོག་ནས་ཕེབས་པའི་རེ་བ་ཡོད། སྒེར་བདག་ཚད་ལྡན་དང་མི་དམངས་མང་པོས་རམ་འདེགས་གཏན་གཏན་གནང་གི་རེད། ཡིད་ཆེས་བྱོས། རྟ་མགྲིན་ལགས་སེམས་ཤུགས་མ་ཆག་རོགས། རིག་པ་འགྲིམས་ཤོག །
It’s truly sad to cease its operation because I used to watch it on regular basis and therefore really found it very informative concerning the update information of Tibet. Tending la, you have done a great job in serving to bring the effective information of on-going Tibet related issue and quite admirable to know that your media TV channel has huge readership inside Tibet. We definitely need your media TV which I found it independent in judgement, truth and with the sense of integrity and committing your service to the interest of Tibetans to a great extent. I hope you will find other options to get funded to resume your media TV and why not get the funding from the Tibetans through donations. The CCP pressure to shutting down means your media TV has done a great job meaning we should not allow ourselves to shut it down but rather we should strive very hard to keep your media TV to resume again in near future. I wish you will get the opportunity of interview in other media TV channels such as RFA, VOT, TibetTV and others to explain to the general public for what reason you have to shut down your service so that the larger audience can be heard about the sad news of shutting down TibRooster, the current affairs in Tibet. By doing the above sug
suggested viewpoints we will definitely find some good solutions and at end, even if not, there’s nothing to feel regret about but rather feel very proud of, what you have done a great service towards the cause of Tibet. Your great work really inspires so many Tibetans and I would like to end this comment by saying thank you so much from the bottom of my heart!
I understand, pressure from all directions maybe!!