Short Commentary: Interrupting TV Broadcasts

(Clearwisdom.net) On July 1 2003, in Hong Kong, over 50,000 people protested in the streets to oppose the Article 23 Legislation, which deprives citizens of basic rights. The Chinese Communist Party cut off all of Hong Kong's television signals on the Shenzhen television network including: the English platform so they could prevent news of the protests in Hong Kong from spreading throughout Mainland China. Advertisements were inserted in the broadcast instead.

Before this, on the evening of June 30, a CNN television broadcast was cut off in China because CNN was broadcasting an interview with Hong Kong legislative councilwoman Emily Lau. When she started to criticize the Article 23 legislation, the signal disappeared at once. After the interview with Emily Lau was over, the signal returned to its normal state.

Before the CNN broadcast interruption incident, on January 22, American citizen Charles Li was illegally arrested at the Guangzhou Airport in Guangdong Province. On March 21, he was sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to insert some recorded broadcasts revealing the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong on Yangzhou (Zhejiang Province) television networks.

In the Charles Li case, the Jiang regime's excuses to confuse people between right and wrong should stop. Is it right or wrong to encroach on somebody's property, interests, commercial operation, etc.? What about CNN? Does CNN belong to Jiang Zemin? Does the news belong to Jiang Zemin? Should Jiang's regime have the power to cut off television network signals? Should they be allowed to insert programming at will into independent television network broadcasts?

Do they want to search for answers in laws? I don't know which law Jiang's regime was upholding when they cut off and inserted programming into broadcasts. However, Charles Li's insertion of his broadcast into the Yangzhou television network is protected by "the People's Republic of China Criminal Law".

Please read the following:

Article 20. á Criminal responsibility is not to be borne for an act of legitimate defense that is under taken to stop present unlawful infringement of the state's and public interest or the rights of the person, property or other rights of the actor or of other people and that causes harm to the unlawful infringer.

Article 21. á Criminal responsibility is not to be borne for damage resulting from an act of urgent danger prevention that must be undertaken in order to avert the occurrence of present danger to the state or public interest or the rights of the person, property rights, or other rights of the actor or of other people.

For four years, the Jiang regime's bloody persecution of one hundred million Falun Gong practitioners has caused the death of thousands, the disablement of tens of thousands, and the separation of countless families. The terms "infringement" and "danger" don't even begin to describe the damage and the losses of the practitioners caused by Jiang's persecution! Why shouldn't the persecution be stopped? What crime did Charles Li commit? Charles Li and thousands upon thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are compassionate people, and people of ideals and integrity. They can never be beaten down, and should be praised by our and future generations!

Interrupting TV broadcasts isn't the real issue. The real issue is about whether you do it for the benefit of the people; it's also about being kind or being cruel. If the benefits are for the people or being compassionate, the acts of justice is justified. If it is for personal benefit or cruelty, then it is dead wrong.

Original article date: 07/07/2003

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/7/7/53598.html

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