A South African TV Station Broadcasts Interview with Practitioners Across Africa During Prime Time

By Clearwisdom reporter Mei Jie

(Clearwisdome.net) On August 18-20, 2004, four Falun Dafa practitioners from western countries went to South Africa to communicate the facts of Falun Dafa to the African media, schools, political circles, Ministers from African countries, and the general public. This attracted widespread attention. The South Africa Broadcasting Company and a local TV station interviewed Falun Dafa practitioners and broadcast the programs across Africa during its prime time news.

On August 18, the "XIV Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement" was held in Durban, a port city in South Africa. Ministers from many non-allied countries, including the Foreign Minister of China, attended this conference.

Falun Dafa practitioners' peaceful activities opposing the persecution and their spreading the truth about the practice attracted great attention from the local media. A reporter from a TV station in South Africa was deeply touched after he learned about how Falun Dafa was being persecuted in China. He invited the practitioners to come to a live broadcast that evening. That evening, Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Lucy Zhou was invited to the TV station. She and a foreign minister from a North-African country participated in a 20-minute interview program together. According to the foreign minister, this program was broadcast to all African countries via satellite during prime time.

In the TV interview, Ms. Zhou, who is from Canada, introduced Falun Dafa. She told the audience that the reason she came to South Africa was to call for a stop to the persecution of Falun Dafa. She said in the interview, "The persecution of Falun Dafa is (actually) a persecution of the human conscience." She gave an example of how China had been attempting to stop Canada and some other countries from condemning the violation of human rights by Jiang Zemin's group at the United Nations Human Rights Conference held in Geneva by threatening to restrict international trade and economic interaction with these countries. However, Canada has condemned China's persecution from the beginning.

The foreign minister from North Africa was shocked when he saw the persecution photos of Falun Dafa practitioners. He said he knew the Chinese representative in the United Nations, and said, "I will ask him face to face why he persecutes Falun Dafa next time I see him."

In the early morning of August 18, four Falun Dafa practitioners hung up banners with "Falun Dafa," "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance," and "Voluntary Teaching of Falun Gong" printed on them. A reporter from the South Africa Broadcasting Company (radio station) conducted a live interview with the Falun Dafa practitioners. Later, he came back and told the practitioners that the interview had been broadcast to the entire country.

In the afternoon, the radio station reporter hurried back. He said that the Chinese ambassador in South Africa told them that Falun Dafa was questionable, and that "Falun Gong does not permit people to take medicine," and that it had "caused deaths," and so on. The practitioners clarified the truth to him one by one. They told him that in Canada, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Committee made the decision regarding the so-called "Fu Yibin Murder" case (1) stating, "It is unfair to relate Falun Dafa to a murderer." After hearing this, the reporter gave us a thumb up, "You did well."

Ms. Lucy Zhou said to a Minghui reporter, "South African people have suffered from racial segregation and discrimination before, so they can better understand the persecution suffered by Falun Dafa practitioners in China. When we distributed materials telling the truth about Falun Dafa, almost everyone accepted them. Some South Africans even helped us to distribute the materials. We brought 1,000 flyers and we ran out quickly." During their short, four day stay in South Africa, the four practitioners also went to the local universities to clarify the truth, and set up a local practice site.

4) A member of the museum staff said, "I will take photos of your activities, and hang them in the museum."

A staff member of the local museum was collecting materials to commemorate the city's history. After the practitioners clarified truth to him, he said, "This Ministerial conference is an event of historical significance. Your activities also have historical significance. I will take photos for you and hang them in the museum."

Notes:

(1) Fu Yibin Murder case: Fu Yibin was a psychiatric patient and killed his family members in November 2001. Xinhua News Agency accused him of being a Falun Gong practitioner to slander and defame Falun Gong. Please refer to http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/5/45776.html

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