Finnish Falun Gong Practitioner Appears in National TV Programme

A Finnish Falun Gong practitioner from the city of Kemi appeared on Finland’s national TV programme “Faces of Homeland” on March the 10th. The programme introduced the practice of Falun Gong and discussed the ongoing persecution of its practitioners in China.

The practitioner talked about his experiences and the positive benefits that practising Falun Gong has given to him after only two years: “Through regular practice, I have noticed I am more vigorous and have better strength to perform my demanding night-work.”

The Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners was also discussed. “I think the Chinese Government [harms itself] by persecuting its own citizens, who want to improve their moral standards through Falun Gongs principles and to strive to be good persons in different social classes,” said the practitioner.

One of the Chinese Government’s tactics in persecuting Falun Gong is to spread propaganda and twist the truth about the practice. When the persecution started in 1999, the government destroyed every vestige of Falun Gong material and prohibited them thereafter. After the Falun Gong books and videotapes were destroyed, the state-run media started a mass propaganda campaign, blackening and defaming the practice, in an attempt to get the public to believe that the ban on Falun Gong was justified. Presently, because of the tight media control and information blockade, it is very difficult to get objective information about Falun Gong in Mainland China.

Because of this unjust situation that has been imposed on Falun Gong, practitioners all around the world have been doing lots of work to inform the public what Falun Gong really is and what its practitioners are going through in China every day. This has made the Chinese Government nervous because it is afraid that its bad human right situation will be known all over the world and for the same reason the Chinese Government has been expanding the persecution overseas in forms of threat and harassment.

The Finnish practitioner has also been the target of the Chinese Communist Party’s threat campaign. He received several hundred harassing phone calls, where English tape recordings were played defaming Falun Gong. Like other Finish Falun Gong practitioners who received the same type of calls, he sent crime investigation reports about the case to the local police and also had an opportunity to report about the harassment on the TV programme. Many people who had watched the programme told practitioners that they condemned the dirty tricks used by the Chinese Government and expressed support for Falun Gong.

To this day, 2234 Falun Gong practitioners have lost their lives in the persecution.

Originally published in Finnish at http://fi.clearharmony.net/articles/200503/2553.html