Chinese Festival Melbourne

Rebiya Kadeer is the subject of the documentary The 10 Conditions of Love. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Chinese hackers have attacked the website of Australia's biggest film festival over its decision to screen a documentary about the exiled Uighur leader, Rebiya Kadeer.

Yesterday], two days after the Melbourne international festival opened, hackers replaced programme information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans and sent spam emails in an attempt to crash the site, according to reports in the Australian press.

"The language has been vile, " Moore told the Melbourne Age. "It is obviously a concerted campaign to get us because we've refused to comply with the Chinese government's demands."

He said the festival had reported the attacks, which appear to be coming from a Chinese internet protocol address, and was discussing security concerns with Victoria's state police. Private security guards are being hired to protect Kadeer and other patrons at the film's screening on August 8.

Kadeer denies Beijing's claim that she masterminded this month's riots in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, in which almost 200 people died.The 10 Conditions of Love, directed by the Australian filmmaker Jeff Daniels, describes Kadeer's relationship with her activist husband Sidik Rouzi and reveals the impact of her campaign for more autonomy for China's 10 million mainly Muslim Uighurs on her 11 children, three of whom have received jail sentences.

Once one of the richest women in Xinjiang and held up as an exemplar of China's purported multi-ethnic harmony, Rebiya Kadeer now heads two prominent Uighur exile groups, speaking out against Beijing's oppression of the Turkic-speaking minority.

Kadeer's persecution by the Chinese and her stature as a public face of the Uighur people have earned her comparisons to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Like him, she has been an unrelenting target for Chinese opprobrium.

Her appearance at the Melbourne film festival means the event has also come into Chinese sights. Last week, three Chinese directors withdrew films, with two denying they were forced to do so by Chinese authorities. Director Tang Xiaobai, who withdrew her film Perfect Life after being phoned by the Chinese foreign ministry and the state administration of radio, film and television, said it was her decision to boycott the festival.