The Hollywood Reporter: Canada censor rebukes Talentvision

TORONTO _ Canada's TV censor has ruled that a Chinese Central Television report on a multiple-murder case that was rebroadcast on a Chinese-language Canadian specialty TV channel breached industry codes on violence and ethics.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said Friday that the Dec. 16 rebroadcast of the CCTV report on Talentvision TV, the Chinese-language specialty channel, breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' codes of ethics and violence and the Radio-Television News Directors Association of Canada's code of (journalistic) ethics.

[CH editor:Please note that the report is part of Jiang Zemin’s state propaganda campaign against Falun Gong to vilify and slander the practice]. The offending CCTV news rebroadcast, outlined in the CBSC' s report, repeatedly displayed a blood-soaked crime scene and concerned a man with apparent ties to the [..] Falun Gong [group] who confessed to killing his family in mainland China. The CBSC national specialty services panel, responding to complaints from Falun Gong sympathizers in Canada, expressed no view on the Chinese government's criticism and alleged persecution of the Falun Gong and insisted it was ruling on the TV news report itself.

The CBSC found the CCTV report's characterization of the Falun Gong [..] to be, in the words of the panel, "unfair and improper" and in breach of the industry ethic codes.

The panel also took exception to the news report persistently tying the defendant to the Falun Gong and its activities and also cast doubt on his apparent TV confession. (The CBSC did not have further details on terms of the man' s sentence.)

"There was not any justification to identify him and his criminal act so constantly as Falun Gong-related," the CBSC said in its ruling. "It must also be admitted that it would be most unusual, in a North American judicial environment, to have an accused making such confessions in a television interview as Fu Yi-bin made on this news segment." […]

The CBSC said the Chinese TV report represented an undue "biased" attack on the Falun Gong. [….]

Having breached voluntary industry codes, Talentvision will have to announce the CBSC decision on air during primetime within 30 days, ensuring that the decision is translated into Mandarin.