U.S. Newswire (Press Release), Washington, DC: Telemarketing Hate: Pre-recorded Message Defaming Falun Gong Sent to Hundreds in U.S. and Europe, Quotes Recent AP Article, Group Says

2/11/2005 10:55:00 AM

To: National Desk

Contact: Alan Adler of Friends of Falun Gong, 201-410-1883, Web: http://fofg.org

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Friends of Falun Gong (FoFG), USA was disturbed to learn that on Sunday, Feb. 6 a wave of harassing pre-recorded telephone calls lasting several minutes was received by dozens of Falun Gong contact persons in the U.S., Canada, and countries throughout Europe. Some people received as many as six calls within a few hours, and have reported them to their local authorities and the FBI.

Recorded in both Chinese and English, the message contains propaganda demonizing the practice of Falun Gong and claiming that the Chinese government is defending "human rights" by "saving" people from the Chinese spiritual practice. Further, the message eerily echoes a recently published Associated Press article which used the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) own language to describe a tragic incident of self-immolation. Both describe a CCP-organized interview with a victim of the immolation incident, believed by China experts to be a hoax designed as a propaganda tool targeting Falun Gong. After years of imprisonment and torture, the prisoner expressed "gratitude" to his captors and hatred of the practice and its founder. The AP article's quotes are referenced throughout the message, giving the listener the impression that the responsible party is trading on the credibility of the Associated Press to justify the CCP's crackdown against Falun Gong.

At this time, the message does not appear to have been released to the general public, and it is unclear why the targets were chosen or how their numbers were obtained. The responsible party has not yet been identified; however, an originating number has been traced to Beijing.

Said FoFG's executive director, Alan Adler, "The whole incident seems rather bizarre. We don't understand why they would want to target Falun Gong practitioners with this telemarketing hate campaign, since practitioners fully understand the nature of the CCP and are doing their best to expose it. Maybe the caller is trying to help our organization by providing this great example of the CCP's ham-handed methods at work."

Whatever the intent of the call, it should be clear that a respected, 3rd party media source has been used by the CCP to lend credibility to and further its terrible agenda. Friends of Falun Gong USA again calls upon the AP to run a balanced, responsible story covering the facts of the staged immolation, and of the brutality and genocide occurring today in China, and not to repeat Chinese propaganda as if it were fact.

View FoFG's statement concerning the AP article: http://fofg.org/news/news_story.php?doc_id=919

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43014