Montreal Chinese Paper Served with Contempt of Court Charges

(Clearwisdom.net) Montreal, Canada --- Falun Gong petitioners and their legal counsel Mr. Michael Bergman held a press conference on March 5, 2002 to announce that the Quebec Superior Court has authorized them to proceed with contempt of court charges against Montreal Chinese newspaper Les Presses Chinoises for its publishing a 12-page insert allegedly containing defamatory anti-Falun Gong material in virtually every sentence.

''A hearing on the contempt charges is schedule on March 14, 2002, room 2.08 of the Montreal Court House.'', announced Mr. Bergman.

Since November 3, 2001, Les Presses Chinoises has been continuously publishing materials defaming Falun Gong. The hate literature in Les Presses Chinoises repeats word for word the Chinese authorities' unfounded defamations used to demonize Falun Gong and justify PRC's brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

126 Falun Gong practitioners filed a law suit against the newspaper, its owner and the author for defamation. The Quebec Superior Court had reiterated 3 times, in three hearings, the order prohibiting the paper from publishing defamatory anti-Falun Gong materials. On February 7, 2002, the court also prohibited the paper from directly or indirectly using the words 'evil', 'hate', 'deviant', 'perverted practices', or 'enemies of the state' in reference to the Falun Gong.

Petitioner Yumin Yang said: ''However, on Feb 2, 2002, Les Presses Chinoises published a 12-page special insert allegedly containing defamatory anti-Falun Gong material in virtually every sentence. To stop such hate and defamatory publication, we have no other choice but to file contempt of court charges against the paper, its publisher and the author for the alleged violation of court orders.''

"This is a very significant event. It is rare, firstly that a newspaper is alleged to have violated a court order, but it is even more rare that a newspaper would be charged with contempt of court...[the case] shows the determination of Falun Gong practitioners to do whatever is reasonable to resist the defamation of Falun Gong and the use of hate literature ", said Bergman.

Yang mentioned, "In China, the state-controlled media is used to defame Falun Gong and justify the PRC's illegal persecution. We cannot allow such hate literature and persecution to be extended to Canada. We cannot allow the Chinese community and media to be manipulated by a foreign government and to relay their propaganda. Freedom of statement cannot be allowed to be abused to spread hate."