A Mockery of Justice -- 15 Falun Gong Practitioners on Trial for Broadcasting TV Programs Exposing Human Rights Abuses
PRESS STATEMENT - September 19, 2002 [ http://www.faluninfo.net/
]
NEW YORK, September 19, 2002 (Falun Dafa Information Center) -- According to a
September 18 report by the BBC, 15 practitioners of Falun Gong were put on trial in the northeastern
city of Changchun, China. Their crime? Tapping into cable TV signals to broadcast programs exposing
human rights violations committed by the Chinese Communist regime.
The broadcasts also included programs showing the practice and support of Falun
Gong in over 50 countries around the world.
For over three years, the Chinese state-run media has been saturated with
programs and campaigns that distort the teachings of Falun Gong. This propaganda also accuses Falun
Gong practitioners of horrendous crimes (without any third-party verification) and outright lies
regarding how Jiang's regime is persecuting practitioners -- all in an effort to align public
opinion with Jiang's campaign against Falun Gong.
In the Chinese state-run media, the freedoms protected under China's own
constitution, including freedom of speech, are stripped from practitioners of Falun Gong. In the
state- run media, Falun Gong, like other suppressed groups, has had no voice... until now.
By broadcasting programs that expose what is really happening in China,
practitioners of Falun Gong are exercising their right to freedom of speech, using peaceful means
that harm no one.
Throughout history, those who peacefully defy injustice and the persecution of
the human spirit have been called heroes. Today, in this show-trial in Changchun, such people are
being labeled as "criminals."
In recent weeks, Jiang's regime has put a chokehold on media inside China and
greatly restricted access to information on the Internet. With the show-trial of these 15
practitioners of Falun Gong, Jiang is lashing out, yet again, at those who seek to bring
transparency to the issue of human rights in China.
This is the act of someone who is scared what that transparency might reveal.
This is the act of a criminal who fears his crimes will be exposed.
The broadcasting of programs by Falun Gong practitioners over cable TV networks
is standing up for the right to freedom of conscience, expression, and association. It exposes the
true picture of human rights in China and gives a voice to the millions of Chinese citizens who have
none. It is truly serving the people.
#ááá #ááá #
Background on Jiang's Media Campaign Against Falun Gong
Moving against the judgment of many senior Chinese officials because he feared
there were too many people practicing Falun Gong (70-100 million according to a 1998 Chinese
government survey), Chinese Communist Party head Jiang Zemin initiated a persecution campaign
against the practice on July 20, 1999. Days later, a representative of Jiang's regime appeared on
ABC's Nightline with Ted Koppel to discuss the crisis.
Mr. Koppel asked the official, why the campaign? The answer: Falun Gong was
"blocking traffic" and "disturbing social order."
When Mr. Koppel pressed him for more specifics, the Chinese representative began
to sway in his chair and repeated, "blocking traffic" -- hardly an impetus for the
wide-scale persecution in China that has left well over 1,600 dead, tens of thousands (if not
hundreds of thousands) detained in forced labor camps, and millions arrested, often beaten or
tortured in custody.
Hardly an impetus, indeed, and Jiang knows this, as well.
Thus, a large part of the campaign against Falun Gong over the past few years has
been to saturate all media, both inside and outside China, with two slanderous messages: 1) Falun
Gong is a dangerous group with weird ideas that poses a threat to society and 2) the Communist Party
is taking steps to be caring and nurturing toward the majority practicing Falun Gong, while striking
out "hard" against what they call Falun Gong "organizers."
According to the Wall Street Journal's Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, Ian
Johnson, Amnesty International, the U.S. Congress, and just about anyone else who is not directly
subjected to pressure from Jiang's regime, nothing could be further from the truth.
In July, 2002, the U.S. Congress passed resolution no. 188 by a unanimous 420-0
vote, which states "Falun Gong is a peaceful and nonviolent form of personal belief and
practice with millions of adherents in the People's Republic of China and elsewhere."
The Wall Street Journal's Mr. Johnson won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of
articles he wrote in 2000-2001 reporting on the systematic persecution of practitioners of Falun
Gong throughout China, providing detailed accounts of those who were tortured to death for their
beliefs.
For the majority of the populous in China, however, none of this exists.
The government in China controls virtually every media outlet in the country.
Furthermore, access to information on the Internet remains closely guarded. Among the websites
blocked to users in China, are www.cnn.com and www.amnesty.org. Consequently, what Chinese citizens have heard
about Falun Gong over the past three years has been only what Jiang's regime wants them to hear...
until practitioners of Falun Gong began tapping into cable TV networks to broadcast programs for the
people.
á
A Press Statement from the Falun Dafa Information Center
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTRE- Contacts: Gail
Rachlin 917-501-4441, Erping Zhang 646-533-6147, Levi Browde 914-720-0963, or Feng Yuan
917-941-1097. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com,
Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/
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