Sued in a US Court, Zhao Zhizhen Claims Chinese Communist Party's State-Controlled Defamation Should be Protected as "Free Speech"

Zhao Zhizhen, former director of the Wuhan TV Station, was sued in a U.S. court by Falun Gong practitioners for inciting hatred against practitioners. On December 30, 2004, Zhao submitted documents to the Federal District Court in New Haven claiming that he should be protected by American's free speech principles. This is making a mockery of freedom of speech.

According to a report from the New York Times on January 2, 2005, Wuhan TV station director Zhao Zhizhen visited the U.S. last summer and was sued in a federal court by practitioners for programs shown on his station that had incited violence against them in China.

But Zhao Zhizhen, according to the report, responded by saying the lawsuit challenged his honour as an independent and objective journalist. On December 30, 2004, Zhao submitted documents to the Federal District Court in New Haven claiming that he should be protected by the American principles of free speech.

According to the Times, Morton Sklar, the executive director of the World Organisation for Human Rights US, said the Connecticut court should rule against Mr. Zhao under principles of international law. "Certain kinds of speech do not qualify for protection as free speech," Mr. Sklar said. "When someone promotes the use of torture and promotes genocide or promotes the extermination of a group for its spiritual beliefs, that line has been crossed."

On July 14, 2004, when Zhao Zhizhen was visiting New Haven, Connecticut, he received a summons issued in a U.S. Federal District Court. Zhao Zhizhen is the former Wuhan TV Station Director and the former Wuhan Radio Station Director in Hubei Province, China. Several Falun Gong practitioners filed a class action lawsuit in Federal Court in New Haven, Connecticut on July 13, charging Zhao with making propaganda films that incite hatred, violence and genocide against Falun Gong practitioners.

According to Clearwisdom.net, under Zhao Zhizhen's direct instruction, the production team of the popular "Scientific Time" TV program of Wuhan went to Changchun City and produced a special film entitled "The Story of Li Hongzhi," which contained fabricated information and groundless charges. This film was used by Jiang Zemin to persuade other Central Government leaders to agree to the persecution of Falun Gong. Then the film began to be played over and over again on CCTV starting on July 22, 1999, three days after the persecution officially began. This film was the primary TV propaganda program demonising Falun Gong in the early stages of the persecution. It was also one of the major tools used to brainwash Chinese people nationwide. Later, this film was played in forced labour camps, prisons, and mental hospitals for brainwashing purposes, and it was used to incite the torturing of Falun Gong practitioners. After watching the program, many police officers' hatred towards Falun Gong intensified and, as a result, the persecution became worse.

The practitioners have said that "free speech" does not mean that one can say anything without taking responsibility. If Zhao purposefully distorted the facts when he made the films that have caused major damage to the plaintiffs, it is no long an issue of "free speech," but rather purposeful slander. The lawsuit against Zhao is perfectly justified and reasonable.

The so-called "independent and objective" media outlets do not really exist in China. There, people can only hear one voice, no matter whether it is from a Wuhan TV station or Central Chinese TV. The Chinese media outlets have no freedom--they are the "voice of the Party" as stated by Jiang Zemin when he was interviewed by Mike Wallace of CBS.

According to co-consul for the plaintiffs, Dr. Terri Marsh, "The Wuhan Broadcasting and TV Bureau and TV Network Station were given primary responsibility by the former President of the Peoples Republic of China to create a climate of hatred, fear and violence against persons who practise Falun Gong in China and abroad using the same propaganda tactics deployed in Nazi Germany during the Second World War, in Rwanda, during the genocide of the Tutsi by the Hutu, and in China during the Cultural Revolution. American laws protect freedom of speech; however, 'free speech' is not the same as the propaganda of media outlets in a totalitarian regime."