Falun Dafa’s Persecution in the US Media
Twenty plus years of Falun Dafa persecution in China has already created uncountable stories of human rights violation in the form of illegal arrests, torturing, broken families, and many forms of abuses and humiliation against Falun Dafa practitioners.
During these two long decades of having to constantly endure this persecution, western countries such the USA condemned the atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Party many times on many forums and generally sympathized with Falun Dafa practitioners.
However, western media remained silent on the persecution, despite it being one of the most severe and wide-scale persecutions in history. It wasn’t until recently, specifically after the 2020 U.S. election, that some major media outlets in the USA took the opposite stand of aligning with the Chinese Communist Party to spread hateful propaganda against Falun Dafa. This has allowed the Chinese Communist Party to feel more justified in escalating their persecution and suppression of practitioners in Mainland China.
In response to the publication of those biased reports, the Falun Dafa Infocenter produced an interesting video to clarify the situation and discusses the following questions with the public:
“Why would they do this? Why do some U.S. media outlets intentionally distort the teachings and practice of Falun Gong in these biased reports about The Epoch Times, and why do they gloss over one of the worst human rights crimes of the last 50 years?”
What US Media Avoided Reporting on about the Persecution of Falun Dafa
One point the video brought to light is how western media continued to ignore the severe human rights abuses of Falun Dafa practitioners, despite mounting evidence and condemnation from numerous credible organizations:
…there is a shocking disregard for the scope and scale of persecution faced by people who practice Falun Gong in China. Consider this: for over 20 years, millions of people have been harassed, detained, imprisoned, tortured or killed by Chinese authorities because of their faith. This is a fact that has been regularly documented in annual reports by the United Nations, Amnesty International, Freedom House, and the U.S. Department of State. The Wall Street Journal won a Pulitzer prize for exposing how the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, routinely tortures people to death because they practice Falun Gong. The United States Congress has passed 5 resolutions describing and condemning the systematic persecution of Falun Gong in China. And the reality of Falun Gong practitioners being killed for their organs is now widely accepted among human rights organizations, policy makers, and academics. In fact, just last year, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, convened an independent tribunal of medical, legal, and China experts in London. After assessing all the evidence, the panel concluded that Falun Gong practitioners were and continue to be killed for their organs “on a significant scale.”
Crimes Ignored or Treated as Mere Allegations
“And yet, despite all the evidence of these terrible atrocities and horrible crimes, these reports portray the human rights abuses against Falun Gong as mere allegations, and highly trivialize or even completely ignore, the sheer scope and nature of these crimes“
The video also explained how western media interacted and complied with the Chinese Communist Party since the start of the persecution, causing them to avoid reporting on the persecution in China:
“In the early 2000s, the CCP drew a line in the sand regarding Falun Gong and most Western media chose not to cross it. Consequently, reporting seriously and first-hand about the reality of the persecution in China, and about the suffering faced by practitioners and their families has been virtually non-existent over the past 15 years. What’s more, these recent reports aren’t written by China reporters to begin with, and so they build upon a foundation of ignorance with regards to Falun Gong.”
Why do some US Media Oppose Falun Dafa?
“Regardless of what the actual reasons are, what is abundantly clear is that Falun Gong is being distorted and ridiculed in these biased reports in a manner that is tantamount to religious bigotry. That is tragically ironic coming from media institutions that hold themselves up as opponents of bigotry and hate speech”
Misleading and Biased Reports by US media
At the end of the video, Falun Dafa Infocenter made a call for all US media to take into account the consequences of publishing these misleading and biased reports for people around the world who practice Falun Gong.
For example, among American practitioners there have already been reports of “harassment, discrimination, and unfounded concern from family and friends’ members who read these stories and believe the ignorant or malevolent bias they reflect”.
Especially in China, these types of reports end up fueling intensified suppression of Falun Dafa practitioners who have already been going through a long and grueling persecution.
