NEW YORK -- Distorted and fabricated information crafted by Communist China's Ministry of Propaganda to further persecutory agendas have, for several years, occasionally found their way into the most unlikely of places -- credible Western media reports.

This Sunday, January 23, 2005, will mark four years since five individuals allegedly set themselves on fire in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Beginning just hours after the incident and continuing to this day, China's Ministry of Propaganda has produced an onslaught of hate propaganda claiming the immolators were Falun Gong practitioners - all in an attempt to justify the violent suppression of the practice started in July 1999 by then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.

Today, one of Europe's most prominent newswires reports in its historical calendar for January 23 that five individuals, "followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, set themselves ablaze in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in a group suicide attempt."

The newswire gives no source for the information; no alternative point of view.

It is an unfortunate example of an all-too-common phenomenon - media treating reports by China's state-run news agencies as credible sources of news on Falun Gong, or worse, repeating such reports as outright facts.

Like many media reports on the "self-immolation," missing from the European newswire report is the fact that, for more than a year after the incident, not a single third-party - media or otherwise - was given any access to the individuals supposedly involved, while China's state-run media continued to roll out report after report about the incident.

Missing is the fact that the only known Western journalist to investigate the story, a Washington Post reporter stationed in Beijing, discovered that no one from the hometown of two of the alleged self-immolators had ever seen them practice Falun Gong.

Missing is the fact that an award-winning documentary, which investigates the incident, identifies glaring discrepancies in the reports given by China's state-run news agencies, leading many China watchers and at least one United Nations member organization to conclude that the incident was staged by Chinese officials in order to turn public opinion against Falun Gong.

Missing is the fact that the very act of suicide itself defies Falun Gong teachings, which hold that all forms of killing, including suicide, is a sin.

Missing is the fact that within the first six months of the persecution, China's state-run media pumped out an astounding 300,000 reports attacking Falun Gong to convince the Chinese people and the international community that the persecution of Falun Gong did not exist, while at the same time painting Falun Gong as 'dangerous' or a 'menace' in order to thwart criticism over the persecution. China's state-run reports on the self-immolation incident formed the core of this campaign to vilify Falun Gong.

Indeed, why is so much of the story often missing from reports by the world media, while China's Communist Party-line is featured prominently, or in some cases, unilaterally?

In the context of widespread atrocities against Falun Gong practitioners throughout China, we cannot regard reports about Falun Gong from China's state-run "news agencies" as real news, while giving little or no coverage to the credibility of their sources nor the degree to which their reports are backed up by verifiable facts. Indeed, circumspection and due diligence must be brought to bear on reports from news agencies in China that are entirely controlled by the Communist leadership.

We are not suggesting media censor their Falun Gong-related news in any way. In fact, quite the opposite: We call upon the international media to dig into this story more deeply, and report not just what Chinese Communist leaders say about Falun Gong (through their mouth-piece "news agencies"), but why they say it, what they are covering up, and most importantly, what is happening in China to the 100 million people who practice Falun Gong there.

While the reports and statements put forth by Chinese Communist propagandists may be newsworthy, we believe the real story lies behind the walls of China's thousands of labor camps, detention centers, police offices and makeshift brainwashing centers out of which harrowing tales of abuse, torture, rape, and killings of Falun Gong practitioners continue to flow each and every day.

The international community deserves to understand the full story of Falun Gong in China. We trust that the credible news agencies of the world will bear the responsibility to report this story, regardless of what pressure may -- and often does -- come from the Chinese leadership to stay quiet, or toe its line.

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MEDIA ADVISORY - Jan. 21, 2005
Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Practiced in over 50 countries world-wide, Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture. With government estimates of as many as 100 million practicing Falun Gong, China's Communist leader Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999. Since that time, Jiang's regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practice while imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practice it. The Falun Dafa Information Center has verified details of 1,290 deaths since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. In October 2001, however, Government officials inside China reported that the actual death toll was well over 1,600. Expert sources now estimate that figure to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 being sentenced to forced labor camps, typically without trial.

http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9138