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Comments on CCTV's "Lies Focus" Interview with Jing Zhanyi: Journalism Through Threats of Violence, Fabrication, and Defamation under a Media Monopoly

Nov. 18, 2003 |   By Qing Di

(Clearwisdom.net) A few days ago Xinhua News, Mainland China's mouthpiece, reported a ridiculous conviction by Tianjin's Second Intermediate People's Court. Jing Zhanyi, Ruan Huiqin, Gu Guifang, Wang Tan and Chang Jinyun, who were engaged in legal business development in China, were sentenced to three to eight years of imprisonment, respectively, simply because they practice Falun Gong. It is the same as the political persecution of those individuals and their family members (the so-called "five black" categories of people) in the past movements. The only difference is that today's bandits have put on suits and are committing the same crimes in the guise of legality.

The description of Jing Zhanyi on CCTV's newsfocus.net provides its readers with a typical case of fabrication. Jing Zhanyi had just been sentenced to eight years of imprisonment, and he would be sent back to prison after the interview. He had no guarantee of personal safety whatsoever. Under such circumstances, the interviewer could basically say anything he wants. Regarding the stories about someone financing Jing Zhanyi in the amount of 6,000 Yuan to apply for a patent right and him being incited to promote Falun Gong, he was never given any chance to clarify the truth, let alone have a third party conduct an independent investigation of the facts. The whole show was directed and performed by the accusers themselves, including the prosecutor, the witnesses and the judge. How could CCTV's "News Focus" be anything else but "Lies Focus" when it was written under threats and coercion?

The mouthpiece TV stations in Mainland China are used to editing, wrongly excerpting speeches by interviewees, and quoting out of context. If Jing Zhanyi has indeed betrayed his own beliefs and was forced to fabricate stories against others under pressure, then what does this reveal? In the 30s, Russian dictator Stalin sent some veteran Bolsheviks to court. The accused tried even harder than the judge to prove that they were guilty, leaving behind a darkly humorous incident in the history of communism. For the last few decades, the public security system and the propaganda machine of the Chinese Communist Party have never tired of using this same tactic. Similar "self-abuse," and the so-called "turning one's weapon around and striking him with it" were seen among those who fell out of favour, the "monsters and demons" of the political movements and also the Cultural Revolution. Even Deng Xiaoping, a strong man who had been through bloody revolutions, also criticised himself, again and again, with a "higher plane of principles" and claimed that he would never seek redress.

In the past four years, the TV stations in Mainland China have constantly put those who betray their beliefs into the spotlight and directed acts upon acts of farce, revealing the most ugly and sordid side of human nature.

Judas' betrayal of Jesus did not have any effect on the purity of Christianity in the following years; instead, it inspired a great number of Christian followers who would rather be torn apart by lions than follow Judas' example. In the same way, Jing Zhanyi's self-defamation and fabrication against others does not damage the purity of Falun Gong at all; instead, these instances only enable people to see more clearly the shamelessness of the ruling regime, and make people further cherish the determination of adhering to one's beliefs.