(Clearwisdom.net) On March 13, 2009 the High Court of Ontario, Canada, passed down a judgement on the case regarding the theft of The Epoch Times newspapers: Defendant Wang Cong was declared guilty and ordered to pay The Epoch Times Office in California $2300 in fines, plus 4% interest, calculated from the day the theft took place (April 17, 2008). This news reminded me of a few relevant cases in the last few years, which I feel are worth mentioning.
Case 1: The High Court of Ontario, Canada, found Pan Xinchun, Deputy Consul-General of the General Consulate of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime, guilty of slander for he wrote letters to the Toronto Star stating that a Falun Gong practitioner "belongs to an evil cult". The judge ordered Defendant Pan Xinchun to pay $1000 to the practitioner, plus $10,000 legal fees. The judge also ruled that Defendant Pan Xinchun's actions were not official duties, and therefore he was not entitled to any immunity.
Case 2: In July 2006, a court in Milan, Italy, passed down a judgement, ruling in favour of Falun Gong practitioners who filed a lawsuit against the newspaper Europe China News for slandering Falun Gong, and ordered Jiang Ming, the editor-in-chief and reporter from the newspaper to pay a fine of tens of thousands of Euro. The defendants admitted that they had acted according to a request from the Chinese Consulate.
Case 3: After the daily newspaper Ming Bao Daily in Eastern U.S. closed down under the order of its headquarters in Hong Kong on January 31, 2009, Ming Bao Daily in the Western U.S. also stopped publication on February 15 the same year.
For over nine years, the communist regime and the Jiang clique have carried out genocidal policies in their persecution of Falun Gong, following Jiang's policy to "eliminate them physically, destroy their reputations, and ruin them financially." In addition they have constantly generated "false news" via all the media in China under their control and fabricated big lies one after another to defame Falun Gong, such as the Tiananmen "self-immolation", in order to stir up hatred among the people against Falun Gong. Meanwhile, they also extended their evil tentacles overseas. In addition to the above-mentioned two newspapers involved in legal cases, many other commnunist mouthpiece media overseas also often directly quote slanderous comments against Falun Gong by the communist officials, thus deceiving many overseas Chinese and making them hold a hostile view of Falun Gong when they do not know the facts.
Human rights are universal values. In the democratic societies of Europe and America, freedom of expression and freedom of belief are the most fundamental human rights that are protected by law, and no foreign political force is allowed to interfere with such rights. According to a report published by an American non-profit organization, The Jamestown Foundation, in 2001, Ming Bao Daily was one of the Chinese language media in America that the communist regime tried to control. The report also pointed out that with the continuing increase in the number of immigrants from China, the regime used all kinds of means to control Chinese newspapers, TV stations and radio stations overseas. They used economic interests to influence independent media that do business in China, buying air time or space for advertisement, or providing finished programs and content and sending government operatives to hold important positions to directly influence the media production.
According to China Brief, a report by The Jamestown Foundation, "Staff members of Ming Bao Daily once revealed that their 'real boss' was none other than the Chinese Consulate in NY, and they had an obligation to accomplish all the requirements of the Consulate." This fact was also evident in the two cases mentioned above.
The fact that Ming Bao Daily closed its Eastern U.S. edition and Western U.S. edition one after another confirmed that the communist mouthpieces were not welcomed and were eliminated in the end. The closures were also a big defeat of the regime's attempt to control Chinese media overseas.
On the other hand, The Epoch Times, an independent media, has always safeguarded human rights and freedom of belief, and has truthfully reported news according to its principles and won international praise. In 2005, The Epoch Times was the first to report on the outbreak of SARS in China, and won the Media Award presented by the Canadian Ethnic Media Association. Currently, The Epoch Times has become the largest Chinese language newspaper overseas. Take Canada for example: since 2000 when The Epoch Times started its distribution in Toronto, the newspaper has had the widest distribution, covering seven provinces and 20 cities. Starting from being a weekly newspaper, The Epoch Times developed into a daily newspaper in 2004 in Toronto and Vancouver, where most Chinese-speaking people live in Canada. At the same time, there are also Epoch Times editions in the English and French languages respectively.
March 15, 2009
