Australian festival targeted by hackers

MELBOURNE, July 26 (UPI) -- The director of the Melbourne International Film Festival said Sunday the Australian festival's Web site was repeatedly attacked by computer hackers.

Festival director Richard Moore told CNN that Saturday's computer attacks were in response to the documentary "The 10 Conditions of Love" that is set to air during the annual festival.

"Conditions" follows the fallout from World Uyghur Congress President Rebiya Kadeer's attempts to gain greater autonomy for the Uyghur minority group in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Moore said the computer attacks on the festival Web site marked a third stage of attacks against the festival over its scheduled "Conditions" screening.

"The first stage was the local Chinese Embassy asking us to withdraw the film," Moore said. "The second was to find a way for other Chinese films to withdraw from the festival -- five did so. We believe that this is probably not the end of it."

Moore told CNN the Web site attacks, which resulted in online requests for an apology to the people of China, were allegedly traced to an information technology professional in China.