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Third Party Commentary: Breaking through the Jiang Regime's Information Blockade and Propaganda Against Falun Gong By Baohua Lin (Clearwisdom.net)
[Editor's note: Although it is unclear who tapped into a SINOSAT satellite TV broadcast, this third-party article shows that even if it were Falun Gong practitioners, this was a great, righteous act.]
Despite the brutal crackdown by the Chinese Government, Falun Gong
practitioners, aside from their peaceful appeals around the world, were recently able to tap into cable TV signals and televise
truthful information about Falun Gong to the Chinese people. In doing so they
were able to significantly break through China's information blockade and
propaganda against Falun Gong. Since the beginning of this year, there have been
many similar incidents where practitioners were able to televise
truth-clarifying programs including, the interception of Changchun Cable TV on
March 5th, the biggest of all these efforts. As a consequence more
than 5000 people were arrested. The interception of a TV station in Chongqing
City happened twice, once on January 1st and again on June 1st.
After the January 1st incident several practitioners were tried. One
of the defendants, according to police, purportedly died of a disease while in
prison. The other 4 defendants were sentenced to 16, 15, 9, and 7 years in jail.
You can imagine how brutal the persecution is.
On July 8th, the Chinese Communist Government's official news
agency, the Xinhua News Agency, extensively reported on the SINOSAT [note: a
telecommunications satellite that covers the all of China] incident - which
is a rare phenomenon. From June 23rd to June 30th, 9
programs on CCTV and 10 provincial TV programs transmitting through "Cun
Cun Tong Project" [note: meaning "radio and TV programming in every
village project"] via SINOSAT were interrupted to play Falun Gong
truth-clarifying programming. The agency further reported that the Radio Bureau
under the Ministry of the Information Industry stated that this interception was
conducted by an overseas Falun Gong organization and thus supposedly broke
international treaties and regulations on civil telecommunications. According to
the government it compromised national security and infringed upon the general
public's basic rights, etc.
[...] The Constitution of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulates,
"The citizens of the PRC have the rights to freedom of speech, publication,
assembly, association, parade, and protest." It also states "The
citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right to freedom of religion
and belief." Jiang Zemin's regime, however has deprived Falun Gong
practitioners of their right to the freedoms of speech and belief by using the
government controlled media to slander and accuse Falun Gong while denying Falun
Gong practitioners all channels and means to defend themselves. Therefore, Falun
Gong practitioners' have resorted to tapping into broadcast signals as a way to
reclaim their constitutional human rights. Even so, the government has still not
granted practitioners their due rights.
As for breaching international treaties, this accusation is even more
ridiculous. In "The United Nations International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights" to which China is a signatory, many articles point to how
the Chinese Communist regime in fact, breaches and violates these laws. For
example, Article 18 stipulates, "Everyone shall have the right to freedom
of thought, conscience and religion." In Article 19, Sub-article 1 it
states that, "Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without
interference." Sub-article 2 further says, "Everyone shall have the
right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of subject
matter, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through
any other media of his choice." Under the Chinese Communist regime's
"One Voice" policy, Falun Gong practitioners' interception of
satellite signals to speak up and defend themselves is completely
understandable.
The Chinese Communist regime has not only violated the UN human rights
covenant, but has also disregarded the terms of the open market it promised when
it entered the WTO. This regime instituted many regulations denying foreign
interests in media market, maintaining their monopoly and exclusive right to
disseminate state propaganda. The government also tightly controls the Internet.
The Hong Kong China Human Rights Information Center reported that more than
500,000 foreign websites were blocked from Chinese users. What is more, this
regime will tear up any contract in order to "clean up" sensitive
information. On June 15th "The Economist" magazine was shut
down because it published an article commenting on Beijing's political reform;
BBC and China Radio and Television Broadcasting Bureau signed an agreement to
set up shop in hotels and areas for foreigners. These BBC channels were also
shut down for merely reporting on the fact that between July 1st and
July 5th during the anniversary celebrations of Hong Kong's transfer
back to China, there were Falun Gong practitioners protesting on the streets.
In contrast to the Chinese Communist regime's violation of its own
constitution and international covenants, fabrication of lies, attempts to cause
confusion and incite hatred, and its support of state terrorism, Falun Gong
practitioners' ability to intercept satellite signals to promote
"truthfulness, compassion and tolerance" is a hopeful effort to break
through the Chinese Communist regime's monopoly of the media.
(This is a commentary from Lin Baohua, a Special Commentator with Radio Free
Asia. Excerpted version.) Posting date: 7/27/2002 |