(Clearwisdom.net) VOA August 19 report: Chinese TV news linking murders to Falun Gong is deemed unfair and improper. (Report by VOA Chinese department)

Talentvision Report on Falun Gong Against Code of Ethics

The Canadian Broadcast Standard Council made the ruling that a Chinese TV station, Talentvision, acted unfairly and improperly by linking Falun Gong with a murder case during a news report.

False Report

The Canadian Broadcast Standard Council (CBSC) has reached a conclusion regarding Falun Gong practitioners' complaint that the Chinese TV station Talentvision aired false news about Falun Gong. CBSC made the ruling that the report by Talentvision violated the Code of Ethics on news reports as listed in the Canadian Broadcast and TV Regulations and other items regarding violent content. Therefore, the report was deemed to be improper and unjust.

On December 6, 2001, Talentvision reported that Chinese citizen Fu Yibin was accused of murdering his wife and father during its evening news. After an introduction, the news program immediately broadcasted the news report made by Chinese Central TV (CCTV). During the report, bloody scenes of murder appeared four times. The report also claimed that Fu Yibin became a criminal after he began practicing Falun Gong in 1998.

Accepting Punishment

CBSC made the ruling that the Chinese TV news report linking murders to Falun Gong was unfair and improper. The repeatedly shown bloody murder scenes also violated professional standards. Therefore, CBSC ordered Talentvision to broadcast this ruling twice within seven days. Mo Ruoxiang, the president of Talentvision, said that he would accept this ruling. Mo Ruoxiang said, "After this incident, we have also learned to be more careful in the future." He also said that Talentvision has shown the ruling for the first time over the weekend.

Learning a Lesson

Cindy Gu, a spokeswoman for Falun Gong in Canada told VOA that this was the first decision the Canadian government news regulations department has made regarding Falun Gong-related reports by the media. Cindy Gu said, "We are very happy about this decision. This shows that there is not only freedom of reporting news in Canada, it also has regulations and protections regarding news reports for the public. It will not tolerate any reports that are false or designed to instigate fear." She said that Falun Gong practitioners in Canada hope that Talentvision will air the short analysis video on the "Fu Yibin Murder Case" that they made, so that the public will gain further understanding on this case and the situation of the Chinese government's slander of Falun Gong.

Cindy Gu said that all news media outlets can learn a lesson from this case.

Other Cases

Right now, there are two more Falun Gong-related cases being processed in Canada. One is Falun Gong practitioners suing the newspaper Sing Tao Daily for slander and instigating hatred. Another case is practitioners in Montreal suing the local Chinese newspaper Hua Qiao Times of slander and instigating hatred.