CBC motives questioned as program attacking minority group sold to France before Ombudsman’ decision

The motives of some CBC producers are being questioned as a Radio-Canada program maligning the Falun Gong spiritual group has been sold to French broadcasters while CBC’s French-language Ombudsman is still reviewing complaints from Chinese Canadians, human rights activists, and those depicted in the program who believe the program to have been a biased attack on Falun Gong, one that may have even been designed to curry favour with the Chinese communist regime.

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In January CBC’s website was blocked in China by the regime. CBC reported that it believed this was due to its airing “Beyond the Red Wall: The Persecution of Falun Gong,” an independent documentary that CBC initially pulled after a call from the Chinese authorities, and then edited before airing amid international pressure. That documentary was critical of the Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Gong. At the time, CBC called the blockage of its website “a matter of the gravest importance” due to the upcoming Olympics and “a situation that we can’t let continue.” Just as CBC’s website was blocked, French CBC producer Leon Laflamme and reporter Solvieg Miller from Radio Canada began contacting Falun Gong practitioners to produce what practitioners later came to understand would be a one-sided attack on Falun Gong that misleadingly advanced views of the Chinese regime. On October 30th 2008 that program, “Malaise in Chinatown,” aired on Radio Canada’s program “Enquete”. Through misrepresentation, omission, and distortion, the CBC attempted to portray that the arrival of Falun Gong in Montreal had upset a “fragile peace,” while neglecting to mention that Falun Gong had existed harmoniously in Montreal for years before the regime’s persecution of the group began and some pro-Beijing entities in Montreal began attacking the group. The program gave heroic treatment to a Montreal newspaper publisher who, after he was paid by a woman with ties to the Chinese regime, published articles accusing Falun Gong practitioners of being vampires and having sex with animals – content the Quebec Court of Appeals found to be defamatory, and which the publisher continued to repeat despite two court orders demanding that he cease. The program also attempted to minimize the well-recognized persecution of Falun Gong in China, groundlessly portraying reports of organ harvesting against Falun Gong as having been concocted in response to developments in a lawsuit, while mentioning none of the supporting evidence of these claims. In contrast, just as this program aired, the United Nations Committee Against Torture has called for investigation and prosecution of those who may be involved in the organ-harvesting crimes. "The alarming distortion of facts, manipulation of interviews and blatant ignoring of the regime’s persecution of Falun Gong in this program is eerily similar to how the Chinese regime manipulates facts to persecute these people,” said Xun Li, president of the Falun Dafa Association. “And the timing of it all calls into question the motives of this program's producers.” On November 28th the Falun Dafa Association filed a 28 page complaint to the CBC Ombudsman detailing fact-based concerns over the irresponsible and biased program, including a disturbing pattern that brings into question whether CBC is being influenced by the Chinese communist regime (section 10). – (See details in the complaint [url=http://xiuxian.no-ip.info/rescue/upload_images/Submission_CBC_Ombudsman_FDAC-final.pdf]http://xiuxian.no-ip.info/rescue/upload_images/Submission_CBC_Ombudsman_FDAC-final.pdf[/url] ) Since the airing of the program letters of complaint by human rights groups, those interviewed in the program and viewers have poured in complaining about the program. Despite this harsh criticism, and the fact that the program is being investigated by the CBC Ombudsman, French CBC sold “Enquete: Malaise dans le Chinatown,” to European countries to be aired on TV5 Monde in France this week. “This is a striking contrast to how the CBC responded to complaints from China,” said Mr. Li. “When the regime wasn’t happy, CBC pulled a documentary and edited out some content. When a minority group is attacked in a biased program and justifiably complains, CBC airs the program two more times and then begins to sell it overseas. This raises the question of whether our tax dollars are being used to curry favour with a repressive communist regime.” The FDAC is demanding that the CBC issue a retraction and apology for the airing of the misleading and damaging program that was an expression of religious intolerance. The FDAC is also demanding that the CBC stop all airing of this broadcast from those they sold it to and stop the distribution and selling of it specially when a decision from the ombudsman is to be rendered. Contact: Lucy Zhou 613 852 7494, Joel Chipkar 416 731 6000

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