German Media Reports Falun Gong Practitioners’ Protests during Wen Jiabao’s Visit

During Chinese leader Wen Jiabao’s visit to Germany, Falun Gong practitioners organised activities in Hamburg and Berlin to protest against the Chinese Communist regime’s human rights abuses. They called on Wen to help end the persecution of Falun Gong in China, bring the main culprits of the persecution to justice, and release the illegally detained human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. Gao wrote three open letters to Chinese leaders Hu and Wen calling them to stop the brutal persecution of Falun Gong. He was secretly detained by the regime a month ago.

On the 14th of September, the German mainstream media reported as main news the Chinese Communist regime’s persecution of Falun Gong and that German Chancellor Merkel stressed China’s human rights problems to Wen Jiabao.

During the three news broadcasts in the afternoon and evening that day, German State TV 1 ARD reported that in the meeting between German Chancellor Merkel and Wen Jiabao, Merkel pointed out that China’s human rights problem is the main topic of the discussion. It also broadcast the protest by Falun Gong practitioners outside the office of the Chancellor and showed posters of Falun Gong practitioners who were tortured to death by the Chinese Communist regime.

In the 5pm News today programme, State TV 2 ZDF reported that during Wen Jiabao’s visit to Hamburg, in the city centre Falun Gong practitioners exposed the Chinese Communist regime’s persecution of Falun Gong. The TV broadcast showed an anti-torture exhibition, where practitioners re-enacted some of the torture methods employed by the CCP including a practitioner confined in a small cage and the harvesting of organs from live Falun Gong practitioners.

An hour later, Germanys’ largest private TV station RTL reported in its special news programme the protest by Falun Gong practitioners and other groups against China’s human rights abuses during Wen’s visit to Hamburg.

On the 8am news, German Northern TV station NDR also reported the protest by Falun Gong practitioners in Hamburg city centre. The broadcast showed the photo of a Falun Gong practitioner who was persecuted to death. NDR reported that in the meeting with Wen Jiabao, Chancellor Merkel stressed China’s human rights problem as well as the freedom of the press and intellectual property protection.

Long before Wen Jiabao’s visit to Germany, Berlin’s public radio used fifteen minutes to report the planned protest by Falun Gong practitioners. On the 19th of September it used one and a half hours to specially report the activity by Falun Gong practitioners in Berlin.