Editor's Note: Newspaper Herald-Sun (Durham, North Carolina) had a report on Durham's Falun Dafa Day -
http://clearwisdom.net/eng/2000/Nov/29/NMR112900_3.html. Later someone wrote a letter to the newspaper quoting much of the fabrication made by Chinese government. A Westerner who has been coming to Falun Gong weekly practice wrote the following letter to the newspaper, most of which was carried on December 9 issue.
Aron Silverstone ("More Sinister Aspects" 12/1) is correct in supporting freedom of the press, but suffers from a misunderstanding of China and Falun Gong.
China has detained, arrested, sent to labor camps, beaten and tortured Falun Gong practitioners by the tens of thousands. Nearly a hundred have been tortured to death. Denied rights include freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and freedom of the press. Yet the writer, strangely, criticizes Falun Gong for interference with freedom of the press in China!
Beijing's media aparatus is well-oiled and effective at spreading the word, but the "word" government-contrilled media spread is often not truth. Dispite extremely intense efforts by Beijing to discredit Falun Gong, it is the government's brutality which has been reported outside of China, eliciting the condemnation of international leaders, human rights organizations and editorialists.
The writer employs a series of mostly made-in-Beijing distortions of statements by Falun Gong's founder Li Hongzhi, evidently to raise readers' doubts about Falun Gong. Taken out of context, and/or distorted, some words of Li Hongzhi may, indeed, seem shocking. Understanding for practitioners comes with study and experience. History shows that truely sinister government leaders will distort and use unusual words to persecute people they fear.
The Silverstone letter summarizes, "...suppression of press freedom is not good for any society." China's press is not free, and the reporter was not suppressed by Falun Gong, but rather scape-goated by the station management prior to the deadly crackdown. Falun Gong is about illumiunating the truth, not supressing a free press (or any other kind of press).
As a former broadcast journalist with two years of working experience in Hong Kong, and a person who has spent considerable time learning about Falun Gong, I found the Herald-Sun's feature to be well-written, beautifully photographed and accurate. The writer of the letter, and everyone else, is always welcome to stop by on Sunday mornings (9-12 at Duke's International House) to learn more about the group.
C. Clark