Speech from the International Conference on "Genocide in the New Era": CIST Spokesman Examines Role of Media in the Persecution of Falun Gong

The International Conference on “Genocide in the New Era”, organised by “Friends of Falun Gong Europe” and “International Advocates for Justice”, took place in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm from January 26th to January 28th 2004. This is one of the conference speeches by the Committee for an International Special Tribunal on the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIST) Spokesperson Zenon Dolnyckyj, entitled "Examines Role of Media in the Persecution of Falun Gong", which was given in the afternoon of Tuesday January 27th.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Zenon Dolnyckyj and I am the spokesperson for CIST - the Committee for an International Special Tribunal on the Persecution of Falun Gong. With a title like that, one would think a speech given by this organization would better fit into other sections of this conference, such as Legal Mechanisms on Genocide, Development & Law, or Human rights Violations in China, but the topic of this section "New Threats: Media and the Internet" is directly connected to the inception of and the need for the CIST.

Non-governmental organizations and respected researchers have addressed the issue of media censorship in great depth and if anyone would like reports on this topic I would be happy to forward them to you. Today I would like to address the threat of media from three other angles. One is from the perspective of international deception, the second from the threat of irresponsible reporting, and lastly how the CIST plans to address these problems in relation to its mission.

At a previous conference I attended entitled “Searching for Justice: Comprehensive Action in the Face of Atrocities”, I proposed the perspective of media and the Internet being a "new threat." One of the panellists mentioned that media is not itself bad, and the panellist was correct. Media is a tool, like a blade, and with regard to matters of persecution, genocide, international security and justice, the question is whether it will be a blade forged into a sword for Lady Justice or a sickle for the Grim Reaper.

That may sound like a colourful use of language, yet at the very least, in relation to the persecution of Falun Gong, the reality is shockingly that appalling. Modern information technology, particularly the media and the Internet, have completely shrunk the scope of the world and brought the international community a level of intimacy that it has never experienced before in history. Furthermore, this has happened at the rapid pace of a few decades with the last one being more active than the previous five or six put together.
However, during this rapid growth the maturation process of how to responsibly handle the new challenges that came with this growth was overlooked.

Nero was able to spread lies about the Christians when he chose to persecute them, but this pales in comparison to Hitler's use of the media and documentaries to glorify the Third Reich, vilify and defame the Jews, and deceive the world into thinking that Hitler's Germany was fit to host the Olympics. The power and use of the media in relation to genocide and crimes against humanity brings a frightening international dimension.

The old saying "the pen is mightier than the sword" speaks to this principle. The ability to inform others and be informed can move people to take action. When people are convinced of something themselves, then their own volition will empower them far greater than any external pressure. Rather than battling on the surface, you change people from the inside. This change can happen in one of two directions: one based on facts and another based on deception and manipulation. In the case of the former Chairman of China's genocide against Falun Gong, the Jiang regime chose deception.

While testifying in the Quebec Supreme Court as an expert witness during a trial between Falun Gong practitioners and a Chinese newspaper that was inciting hatred against Falun Gong, Professor Owenby of McGill University (Chinese History) stated that, in relation to use of media and mass deception, this was the worst persecution in China's 5000 year history, because the regime had never before had these tools to harness.

Within the first thirty days of the commencement of the persecution of Falun Gong, the main newspaper in China, The People’s Daily, printed over 300 articles demonizing Falun Gong, its founder and practitioners. This is only one newspaper. Newspapers, television and radio are controlled in China and have been used for the past 4 plus years to attack and vilify Falun Gong on a daily basis. Falun Gong books are burned and web sites blocked and Chinese people have no way to be informed. Under this constant stream of misinformation, the Chinese people were deceived into following this eradication campaign by turning in their friends, family and co-workers to the authorities.

When Falun Gong practitioners are able to successfully release facts surrounding the persecution, they are arrested and tried for “leaking state secrets” and then further persecuted under the “law”. The block on the flow of information does not stop there. Media watch dog Reporters sans Frontieres, (a.k.a Reporters Without Borders) has protested the persecution of foreign media personnel stationed in China when they try to report on Falun Gong. These concerns are still being raised by RSF today.

Shockingly, outside of China, Chinese embassies and consulates perpetuate this systematic pressure by spreading hate through every level of free societies and pressuring expatriate Chinese communities and overseas Chinese media. Whether in China or in the international community, any information pathway that could be used, be it diplomatic or otherwise, has been used to vilify Falun Gong. Yet no avenue has been more damaging then the media itself, as this has the greatest effect on the masses and how they think on major issues.

United Nations Special Rapporteurs, governments that respect human rights and reputable non-governmental organizations represent the facts to the international community so that people can be informed and justice and international security can be maintained. Only when people are informed of an issue can they take action. Unfortunately, the international media doesn't seem to fully recognize its role.

When media was used as it was during the Rwandan genocide, it becomes clear that those individuals need to face justice under international law, and the recent convictions by the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) of those media personnel gives us hope that international law mechanisms are willing to take action against the media. The difficulty becomes greater however when the actions from the media become more subtle. When reputable media organisations treat dictatorial regimes that commit crimes against humanity as a “source” of information, then the media is indirectly giving them credibility and a platform to propagate their deception around the world. This greatly interferes with people’s ability to discern the true nature of the situation and the severity of the crisis.

It has an added negative aspect: to misguide the reader into believing that there are two sides to the story or that there may be a conflict between two groups when in some instances there isn't. Yet on the issue of genocide, crimes against humanity and persecution, there are the perpetrators and the victims. When people are not clear they don't know how to evaluate the issue and decide whether or not to take action. This problem creates a great deal of uncertainty in the international community and a state of inaction, which indirectly leaves the environment for genocide to fester and grow. So in this respect, news media has a tremendous impact on the international community and a great responsibility.

When cries for help come from the victims and justifications come from the perpetrators it becomes a cold war, not for world power but for people's hearts. With the notion of being “unbiased”, media treat all sources as equal. This is wrong. It’s not an issue of taking sides; it is an issue of proper investigation and clear representation of the facts, the credibility of sources and the context surrounding major issues, particularly surrounding issues of crimes against humanity, genocide and persecution.

The world’s leaders in human rights monitoring have documented this terribly escalating persecution. The highest awards for journalism have been given to investigative reporters for in-depth reporting that details the systematic nature of this eradication campaign against Falun Gong. Not only has this information blockade and international hate propaganda campaign hindered people from understanding the larger and more complete picture of this genocide, even the most reputable third party reports that have been compiled are misinformed in some areas.

This is one of the reasons why the CIST was created. We are centralizing all of this documentation, providing a chronology of events and analysis so as to guide people to understand the complex frightening reality of the genocide of Falun Gong. Once people are informed, the next step is to take responsibility for it.

To assess responsibility in relation to the genocide against the Jewish people and people in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, ad-hoc tribunals were established. The CIST is confident that with a more holistic understanding of the international persecution, the international community and people of moral conscience will rise to the occasion, create a Special Tribunal to address the persecution of Falun Gong and bring the perpetrators to justice.

In relation to news media, the CIST will actively remind them of their responsibilities and provide as much information as possible so they can be properly informed and take active measures in the international community to establish a Special Tribunal on the persecution of Falun Gong.