A Letter to the Ottawa Citizen from Falun Dafa Association of Canada Regarding the Inaccurate AP Article

Falun Dafa Association of Canada

http://faluncanada.net, [email protected]

Main: 90 Belleview Drive

Ottawa, ON. Canada K2L 1W3

(416) 265-0697 Fax: (416) 264-9591

Toronto: 1 Greystone Walk Dr. , Unit 1489

Toronto, ON. Canada M1K 5J3

(613) 599-7494 Fax: (613) 599-7034

January 27, 2005

Dear Editors of the Ottawa Citizen:

Re: "Former disciples renounce Falun Gong," by Audra Ang, Associated Press, reprinted in the Ottawa Citizen on Saturday, January 22, 2005, page B8

- Please take prompt action to remedy this unfair and inaccurate report that propagates the Chinese regime's hate propaganda against Falun Gong

Canadian practitioners of Falun Gong are deeply shocked and distressed to see this unfair, inaccurate, and irresponsible article from Associated Press reprinted in your paper, as it in effect gives credibility to Falun Gong denunciation interviews organized by the Chinese government that are a typical component of the regime's propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against Falun Gong and further fuel the brutal persecution.

As part of the remedy to this wrong we request that your paper publish the enclosed letter from our Association in this coming Saturday's edition.

This letter is to convey our view that these interviews were staged by the Chinese government in order to discredit Falun Gong, as was the Tiananmen Square self-immolation tragedy on which they are based. We also voice our concern that your paper, instead of providing your readers with fair, well-informed, and trusted reporting, has unwittingly been used on this occasion to assist in the persecution's brutality and hatred, causing even greater harm and injustice to those already being slandered and tortured. We also request to meet with your editorial board and its persecution by the Chinese Communist regime.

We also include a list of third-party supporting documentation. These are only a few of the many reports freely accessible in the Western world that convince us that the self-immolation incident and the government-organized interviews reported in the AP article were staged.

We do not know the circumstances under which the interviewees and others took part in the self-immolation and then later lay blame on Falun Gong, but we express sympathy toward them. Even as we point out that Falun Gong's teachings value life and prohibit suicide and killing, and that their claim is untrue that the teachings led to their act of self-immolation, at the same time we recognize that they are clearly sad victims of the persecution as well.

We suggest to you that the anniversary of the self-immolation could be an opportunity to inform the public about the true facts of the persecution and its devastation on people's lives. We attach the testimony of Toronto resident Lizhi He, whose account of his 3 ½ years of imprisonment in China tells us the horrors that many practitioners are continuing to suffer. The following is an excerpt from his writing:

"On September 10, 2001 a few officials from the Beijing Prison Administration Bureau came to inspect how well Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in this prison were being 'trans-formed.' When I was asked, I was able to break through the humiliation that I had been in since I was forced to renounce my faith following unbearable mental and physical torture, and replied that Falun Dafa was righteous, that the persecution against Falun Gong by the government was groundless, and that I was innocent. ...In revenge three police officers in the prison shocked me violently with electric batons charged with 30,000 volts. ..."

We believe that media has a responsibility to investigate and report on the true stories of these people, including the many who remain under the severity of the persecution in China, and others like Lizhi He, who live in Canada. And the truth deserves to be revealed about the suffering of the tens of thousands still imprisoned and their family members who yearn for their return. These are the true stories behind the propaganda campaign and government-organized denunciations.

The public also has a right to know that the self-immolation is only one of numerous pieces of hate propaganda created by the Chinese regime--a killing with words that laid the foundation for the brutal persecution by justifying the suppression and covering up atrocities. In the first six months of the crackdown, the state-run media released over 300,000 anti-Falun Gong reports.

Under the Chinese regime's strict information control, Internet blockade, and one-sided environment for spreading hate against Falun Gong, we believe foreign media has a critical role to play to guard against repeating the propaganda and unwittingly augmenting hatred and misinformation. Moreover, we see the privilege and responsibility you have to help shed light on the truth, expose and stop those who do evil, and help make right the many wrongs in the world.

In this instance, we ask you to help remedy the harm done by the article by publishing our enclosed in this Saturday's edition of the Ottawa Citizen. We also urge your paper to conduct your own investigative reporting based on a factual and moral foundation, and we hope to meet with your editorial board to address this serious and urgent matter.

We thank you for your attention and look forward to a fair and upright response from the Ottawa Citizen.

Sincerely,

Falun Dafa Association of Canada

Enclosure:

1. Letter to the Editor of Ottawa Citizen for publishing

Canadian practitioners of Falun Gong are deeply shocked and distressed to see this unfair, inaccurate, and irresponsible article from Associated Press reprinted in your paper, as it in effect gives credibility to Falun Gong denunciation interviews organized by the Chinese government that are a typical component of the regime's propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against Falun Gong and further fuel the brutal persecution.

The CCP's official portrayal of the January 2001 Tiananmen Square self-immolation tragedy is engulfed by unanswered questions. Over the past four years numerous reports by independent media and human rights bodies worldwide have questioned and repudiated claims by the Chinese Communist regime linking Falun Gong to the immolations. As early as August 2001, the statement of International Education Development (IED) at the United Nations noted, "...we have obtained a video of that incident that in our view proves that this event was staged by the government." Many have raised serious, yet unanswered questions. The Washington Post is one of several parties that have called into question official CCP narratives of the event.

Communist leaders in China have from day one used the incident to breed hatred and violence against the Falun Gong, both in China and beyond. It has been, in the truest sense, a Beijing "propaganda victory," as The New York Times called it. That Beijing barred foreign journalists from interviewing the victims (while giving State press regular access) for an entire year, and even went so far as to detain those who sought to investigate the story, were obvious indicators that something was afoul.

What a startling and regrettable thing, then, that the story Ottawa Citizen reprinted would present the 2001 immolation following the CCP's script so closely as to almost be indistinguishable. The article failed to raise any basic challenges to the information the State provided through carefully staged and regulated interviews. Secondly, it gave no voice to Falun Gong. Thirdly, nor did the article present the wealth of information that suggest the immolation incident's falsity. It seems all critical faculties were suspended.

The article in this sense not only represents a breakdown in journalistic standards and practices, but goes so far as to passively reiterate and spread the Party line. Reprinting this article goes far beyond a disservice to your readership. It is a disservice, or worse, to the millions in China who are being targeted for "eradication" as we speak. The Party line, in fact, has a bounty on many of their heads. To the extent that it can dehumanize and discredit the group through incidents like the "immolation" it can more easily torture, maim, and kill Falun Gong practitioners. We voice our concern that your paper, on this occasion, has unwittingly been used to assist in the persecution's brutality and hatred, causing even greater harm and injustice to those already being slandered and tortured.

Why, if not to serve its own terrible agenda, would China's regime set up for foreign press interviews with its alleged immolation survivors? According to Reporters Sans Frontiers and other human rights organizations, the Chinese regime tries to stamp out any and all independent reporting on Falun Gong. Foreign journalists are not allowed to interview practitioners; unless, that is, they are under the control of their captors. Those that attempt to do so are detained, interrogated and threatened, face the possible revocation of their licenses, and could even be physically abused themselves. Many Chinese citizens have been arrested, tortured, and even killed for reporting on rights violations against the Falun Gong. Falun Gong is allowed absolutely no voice in China. With so many resources meant to end independent reporting on Falun Gong, why would Chinese officials open the doors and usher in foreign media on this occasion (the immolation anniversary) and under such carefully engineered circumstances? And was this not the same stunt (only with different scripted lines) pulled four years ago? Their agenda should be obvious: to paint Falun Gong as a menace and sidetrack would-be scrutiny of the regime's violent persecution.

The Falun Dafa Information Center anticipated Beijing's propaganda shenanigans, and thus sent a press release to media, including AP and Ottawa Citizen detailing concerns. That was the day before the story was printed. It is disheartening to see the story was exactly what the press release cautioned against.

Even with the above aside, one does well to ask what significance the story's interviewees have. To date, more than 165,000 people from China openly declared on the overseas websites that the statements they made while imprisoned and under severe abuse do not represent the truth of what they think or how they were treated. Imagine the ferocity, the barbarity, that was unleashed to make so many people say and do things against their consciences in captivity? Could the immolator interviewees be any different? Is theirs any less a coerced voice - one manufactured in custody over long, untold months? The CCP has been torturing people into "confessions" and "repentances" since as early as the 1940's. This should be nothing new to any journalist, for that matter. And all of this, of course, is meaningful only if first one establishes that the immolators ever were Falun Gong practitioners. (We point out that Falun Gong's teachings value life and prohibit suicide and killing, and that their claim is untrue that the teachings led to their act of self-immolation, at the same time we recognize that they are clearly sad victims of the persecution as well.?)

The persecution of Falun Gong is vast in scope and horrifying in its implementation. We have documented over 38,000 cases of severe abuse or torture in prison camps and detention centers. Thousands are dead. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, languish in labor camps and detention centers throughout China. Brainwashing centers have been established all across the country to use torture - psychological and physical - to destroy people's beliefs and implant the CCP line into their hearts and souls... a process often leaving people psychologically devastated, if not dead. Both the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, as with others, have reported on these tactics and their pervasiveness. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented much of this.

Yet, in the face of such horrors - what many human rights lawyers are calling genocide - reprint this report has offered something of a CCP apologetic, reconstituting the very same hate propaganda that makes possible the torture and deaths of so many. We would think that as a news organization Ottawa Citizen has a moral and professional responsibility to dig into this story, find the truth, and report it.

In light of the extensive damage, harm, and disservice your recent article has done, we have no choice but to insist Ottawa Citizen publish this letter on the following Saturday of the Ottawa Citizen.

Xun Li President of Falun Dafa Association of Canada

2. Supporting documentation

Extensive analyses and numerous investigative reports by independent media and human rights bodies are the basis of our belief that the self-immolation and the subsequent anti-Falun Gong interviews were orchestrated by the Chinese government to defame Falun Gong. We provide a short list of these reports below for your reference:

In August 2001, International Education Development noted in its statement before the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights: "The regime points to a supposed self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square on January 23, 2001 as proof that Falun Gong is an '[Chinese government's slanderous words deleted].' However, we have obtained a video of that incident that in our view proves that this event was staged by the government." (http://faluninfo.net/mediacontrol/IED_UN_Statement.htm)

The documentary "False Fire: China's Tragic New Standard in State Deception," produced by New Tang Dynasty Television, won a Certificate of Honorable Mention at the 51st Columbus International Film & Video Festival in November 2003. It analyzes the self-immolation incident and identifies many blatant discrepancies in the reports given by China's state-run news agencies. (http://www.falsefire.com links to the documentary film as well as other "Analyses and Insights" on the self-immolation incident.)

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong has published a series of four investigative reports pointing to the conclusion that the incident was staged. (http://www.upholdjustice.org/English.2/s_i_menu.htm)

In the August 2001 Washington Post article "Torture Is Breaking Falun Gong, China Systematically Eradicating Group," the authors wrote, "They [Chinese officials] said the crackdown has benefited from a turn in public opinion against Falun Gong since five purported members set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square, leading many Chinese to conclude the group is a [Chinese government's slanderous words deleted]." "...the party made the incident the centerpiece of its campaign to discredit Falun Gong....the government convinced many Chinese that Falun Gong was an '[Chinese government's slanderous words deleted].'" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn--pagename=article&contentId=A33055-2001Aug4¬Found=true)

The Chinese regime maintains a strict information and Internet blockade on the persecution of Falun Gong and only allows its one-sided perspective to be presented. Below we provide a small sample of reports that support our belief that the AP interviews were arranged to serve the government's propaganda purpose and cannot be considered credible and independent news reporting:

In March 2000, Amnesty International wrote about Chinese government-organized denunciations as follows: "Another important part of the government's propaganda campaign has been to publicise statements from people identified as former Falun Gong practitioners who denounce the Falun Gong movement and its leader, speak of the damage that the movement has brought to Chinese society, and praise the government for its firm action against the movement. Such denunciations, whose authenticity cannot be verified, are a typical feature of the political campaigns periodically launched by the authorities in China." http://web.amnesty.org/802568F7005C4453/0/881234C280E6469B802568B00057ED13--Open&Highlight=2,falun

Reporters Without Borders issued a statement in 2001 detailing incidents of arrest and detainment of journalists seeking to report on Falun Gong in China, including seizure of equipment, threats, tailing, questioning, and violence. It concluded, "China's determination to prevent the foreign press from covering the activities and government repression of the Falungong clearly illustrates its rejection of independent news gathering." (http://www.rsf.org/rsf/uk/html/asie/cplp01/cp01/041201.html)

It is a crime to provide information to the outside world about the truth of the brutalities of the persecution, as reported recently in an article by Reporters Without Borders on 11 Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested for posting photos on the Internet about the torture they had suffered. (http://www.rsf.org/article.php3--id_article=12179)

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong released a report in May 2004 entitled "Internet Surveillance in the Persecution of Falun Gong." The report stated that "According to incomplete statistics, .... as of the end of April 2004, as a result of Internet-related activities, 108 Falun Gong practitioners have been incarcerated, illegally sent to labor camps, and tortured. Three identified Falun Gong practitioners arrested for Internet-related activities were tortured to death." (http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/index2.php--option=content&task=view&id=130&pop=1&page=0)