(Clearwisdom.net) As the 2004 Chinese New Year approaches, the mouthpiece media in China have again created a media frenzy by reporting on the so-called "Case of Chen Fuzhao poisoning and killing people." This time the reports said that Chen Fuzhao has already received a death sentence. Meanwhile, they again framed Falun Gong by groundlessly claiming that Chen Fuzhao was obsessed with Falun Gong. Before this, the two government-controlled media, Xinhua News Agency and CCTV, both engaged in creating quite a stir with their reporting on this same case. Yet, their versions that attempt to frame Falun Gong are quite different.
The Xinhua News Agency quoted Chen Fuzhao's words that, "beggars and panhandlers are regarded as the highest level of human beings; killing beggars and panhandlers helps cultivation." Nevertheless, The Xinhua News Agency blamed this ridiculous killing theory on Falun Gong. After reading all the Falun Gong books, however, we can't find the statement "beggars and panhandlers are regarded as the highest level of human beings," let alone "killing beggars and panhandlers helps cultivation" anywhere. And no one could figure out the logical connection between these two sentences. Why does "killing" people who are at the "highest level" turn out to "help cultivation"?
CCTV's version claimed that Chen Fuzhao started to practice so-called "Anti-Cultivation", meaning "No Truth, No Compassion and No Tolerance" in May of this year and started poisoning some beggars. Falun Gong stresses "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance," but what Chen Fuzhao did was the opposite--"No Truth, No Compassion and No Tolerance." How can this kind of behavior, which is completely the opposite of Falun Gong, be attributed to Falun Gong? For example, if traffic rules and regulations require that people drive along the right side of a road, but some guy has an accident because he simply insists on driving along the left side, can you put the blame on the traffic rules and regulations?
The fabrications by the Xinhua News Agency and CCTV contradict each other and each fabrication in itself is absurd. But why do the mouthpiece media still keep making up lies such as these that can only be categorized as nonsensical? This issue has something to do with the nature of the media. In the West, the media are independent of the government and actually monitor and criticize the government. If a media agency reports false news, it will be scorned by the public and won't survive in the competition among numerous different media. A reporter who writes false news will lose his or her job and reputation, and that person's career will be ruined.
The media in China, however, are completely controlled by the authorities. They only serve to benefit those in power, and they are not responsible to the public at all. In addition, there is no competition from public organizations. The mouthpiece media that publish false news do not run the risk of going out of business, nor will the reporters who fabricate the news ever lose their jobs because of it. On the contrary, they will be praised for what they have done. Under such circumstances, it is almost unavoidable for the media to have published such news items as: "10,000 jin [about 11,022 lbs] of crops were produced on a one-mu [0.17 acre] field" (a very typical lie in the Great Leap Forward period) and to have charged former President Liu Shaoqi as a "traitor and secret enemy agent" during the Cultural Revolution. The two different but equally false versions about "Chen Fuzhao poisoning and killing people" fabricated by the Xinhua News Agency and CCTV are nothing but a continuation of this kind of false news. This current phenomenon is the Chinese people's great loss.
The false news fabricated by the Xinhua News Agency and CCTV has deceived people and has poisoned their minds and the nation's morals. Not long ago China's media published many false news stories during the SARS epidemic. China's media usually fabricate false news to incite hatred or to conceal damage. This kind of "news that poisons people's minds" can actually cause people's deaths. For example, many people who lost their lives during the SARS epidemic were actually victims of this type of "news." Over the past four years the defamation and slander of Falun Gong by China's media has directly promoted and found excuses for the brutal persecution. Many people who believed in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" have died as a result of this violent persecution.
The current expos¨¦s of the corruption in China's news is simply shocking. Political commentator Liu Xiaobo wrote in an article:
"The corruption of news not only reveals the use of power by public officials to embezzle or extort money, it also reveals the commonly seen ¡®rewards for news' and ¡®fabricated news.' Furthermore, it also displays the news media's purposeful concealment of the news media corruption. It has only been in the past two years that people have started to notice the common phenomenon of false or misleading news in the state-run media, and what people have seen is just the tip of the iceberg. For example, the corruption case of Li Yuanjiang, the former Party Secretary of the Municipal Political Committee, Propaganda Minister and the former Chief of Guangzhou Daily; the case of the eleven reporters from the Xinhua News Agency accepting money to cover up the truth for local authorities, and the case of CCTV's top director Zhaoann accepting bribes, and so on."
In the article "CCTV, the Most Corrupt Media in the World," Hua Jialiang pointed out, "There is a rhyme in China which runs, ¡®If all the mid-level officials and above are executed one by one, some among them will have been innocent. But if only one out of every two is executed, then some of the guilty will have escaped punishment.' The situation at CCTV is even worse." The article also analyzed CCTV's "Focus Interview" program and pointed out, "A news reporter's responsibility is to tell the world, tell the government and tell the people when, where, and what is at stake, why it happened, and what can be done. Actually, the real goal of CCTV's management teams that work in the studios and production rooms is simply politically safe broadcasting. If their broadcasts are "safe," their career paths will be smooth and the money will keep pouring in. And as for the actual content of their "safe" broadcasts and what damage may be created by their misleading messages, they absolutely do not care.
People can see with crystal clarity, and there are those who have long made their points strongly on the web, "What is this program ¡®Focus Interview'? The first incidents they broadcast were like shooting mosquitoes with anti-aircraft guns, and now it is like looking for germs under a microscope. They ignore important cases, and even if they did, they tried to minimize or downplay this kind of case." This "Focus Interview" program claims that they speak the truth, yet the corruption cases they have exposed were of little significance. They turned a blind eye to the embezzlement and corruption of Jiang, Jiang's son, and other high-ranking government officials. Meanwhile, the "Focus Interview" program did use its minor "reputation" to expose insignificant corruption cases and to aggressively defame and slander Falun Gong. When it comes to the Falun Gong issue, the "Focus Interview" program completely turns into "Focus Lies."
The law will eventually punish the mouthpiece media for its false reports. The overseas media have recently reported that on December 3, 2003, the United Nations Criminal Court for Rwanda handed two convicted individuals its maximum sentence, life imprisonment, and sentenced the third to 35 years in prison. The three men are Ferdinand Nahimana, founder of Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), former magazine publisher Hassan Ngeze, and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, another top RTLM official. Ferdinand Nahimana, 53, a founder of Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), and former magazine publisher Hassan Ngeze, 42, received the life terms. RTLM openly incited the massacres of the Tutsis by the Hutus. The third person, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, 53, another former top RTLM official, will be imprisoned for 35 years. All three were found guilty on charges of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and direct public agitation to commit genocide, among other charges. Presiding Judge Navanethem Pillay of South Africa ruled that RTLM "broadcasts collectively conveyed a message of ethnic hatred and called for violence against the Tutsi population. This message was heard around the world and as board members responsible for RTLM, including its programming, Ferdinand Nahimana and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza were responsible for this message." To Hassan Ngeze, he said that he "preached hatred, expanded fear and incited the massacres."
Although the reporters from the Xinhua News Agency and CCTV who poison people's minds and cause their deaths have escaped the law for the moment, it won't be long before they are punished, as well.