(Clearwisdom.net) Taiwan Falun Dafa Association's Solemn Announcement on January 28, 2003:
Today, MUCH TV Station cancelled a program interviewing Falun Gong practitioners. This program was advertised three days before to be shown today and the cancellation makes people suspect that the Chinese Communist Party is influencing Taiwan's media.
Every 9 - 10 p.m., MUCH TV Station shows a program called "Taiwan's Voice" hosted by Wang Benhu, the station's executive director and a famous author. Last Thursday and Friday (January 23 & 24), the program showed special editions by Zhu Gaozhen. In his interviews in China, Zhu reported groundless lies about Falun Gong. "Taiwan's Voice" then decided to balance it with a Falun Gong report. On January 25, "Taiwan's Voice" interviewed Ching-hsi Chang, a professor at the Department of Economics, National Taiwan University and the Director of Taiwan Falun Dafa Association and Liao Xiaofeng, the Vice President of Feizide Information Company and a board member of Taiwan Falun Dafa Association. MUCH had announced that it would air this program on January 27 and 28. On Monday, January 27, MUCH broadcast the first part of the program as scheduled. However, it canceled the scheduled re-show of the program at 2 p.m. on January 28 as well as Part II of this program that scheduled to be aired in the evening. The service group of the TV station told the public the reason was that "Ching-hsi Chang is not free tonight. Therefore the interview can't be done." However, this subtitled program was already pre-made.
The Part II of this program especially exposed the Jiang regime persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. We therefore suspect that the Jiang regime was the black hand behind the scene who blocked this program.
The Jiang regime has been oppressing Falun Gong for nearly four years. 550 Falun Gong practitioners were confirmed to have died as the result of this persecution. For the past four years, the regime has blocked all media channels and uses the media controlled by it to make lies and slander Falun Gong everywhere. Falun Gong has no political appeals or any criminal conduct. Falun Gong practitioners practice Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance and do not want any fame or personal benefit. They only ask for the freedom to practice. Yet this is not granted and even their basic right of speech is deprived.
Jiang regime's persecution of Falun Gong has recently extended overseas. In the United States and Australia, incidences occurred where the Chinese Embassy ordered some hoodlums to harm the practitioners' mental and physical health as well as personal properties. These cases have gone to court. Actually, several Chinese officials have already been prosecuted in the U.S. courts for persecuting some Falun Gong practitioners' relatives in China. Last October, when Jiang Zemin visited the United States, Falun Gong practitioners in Chicago charged him with the crime of Genocide. Even a head of state is not exempt from this charge.
Has the Jiang regime's hand reached Taiwan? We do not know. However, MUCH TV Station's abnormal behavior worries us. If Taiwan's freedom of speech must also watch the Jiang regime's face, where are we going to place ourselves. Falun Gong practitioners' effort in the past years is to request a basic human respect. Our insistence on this basic human right will not withdraw.
