Finnish TV Reports on the Second Wave of Telephone Propaganda Against Falun Gong Practitioners

On February 23 and 24th, several Finnish Falun Gong practitioners were victims of a second wave of telephone harassment calls. The attacks were similar in nature to the first round, which occurred between February 6th and 8th in 23 different countries. In Finland, five practitioners received around 1500 calls over the course of three days, with phones ringing for hours on end. If these automated calls were answered, a tape started playing information defaming Falun Gong. The nature of the recorded message is consistent with the propaganda the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been trying to push all over the world since it banned Falun Gong in July 1999.

When the first wave of calls happened, news of the harassment was published in different media organisations around Finland. TV channel “Nelonen” extensively reported on the second wave of harassment in its evening news on February 25th. A practitioner from the city of Oulu was interviewed in the report and suggested that the reason for this persecution campaign happening in western countries is that Falun Gong practitioners are exposing the CCP’s crimes against human rights to the world. The interviewee also stated that Falun Gong is a righteous practice encouraging high moral standards and the communist officials fear this due to the endemic corruption in China’s official state organs.

A police officer from Oulu was also interviewed. He stated that the police have launched an official investigation based on the reports handed in by Falun Gong practitioners in Finland, and that records of the phone calls are being investigated. The news report also stated that the Finnish Foreign Ministry is ready to step in if the source of the calls is verified to be China.