AP News, November 9th, 2007
A Canadian broadcaster's decision to pull a heavily promoted documentary on the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement after objections from Chinese officials was criticized Friday by members of the group and the filmmaker.
Both questioned whether the move was influenced by the fact that Canadian Broadcasting Corp. will be the main Canadian broadcaster of the Beijing Olympics next summer. The CBC denied there was any connection. criticize
The CBC's 24-hour news channel had scheduled "Beyond the Red Wall: The Persecution of Falun Gong" for Tuesday night, but the piece did not appear after the CBC advertised it for several days. It already had been shown on the CBC's French-language channel and an English version was shown late last year with little fanfare.
A CBC spokesman said Tuesday's showing was canceled after phone calls from envoys of China, which banned Falun Gong in 1999 following a mass demonstration staged by the movement's followers outside government headquarters to demand official recognition.
Spokesman Jeff Keay, who said none of the Chinese officials had viewed the documentary, said it would be shown after a review of its content.
"We want to make sure it's an absolutely rigorous piece of work because it's become clear ... that there's a lot of interest in the thing. We want to make sure it's a solid piece of work that will stand up to intense scrutiny," Keay said.
The Falun Gong Association of China expressed outrage that the national news broadcaster would give in to pressure.
"The Chinese government has been trying to silence the media about Falun Gong for years in China, so we're not surprised they contacted the CBC, but we are surprised the CBC bent to their demands — that they gave in to the communist pressure," said Joel Chipkar, the association's spokesman.
The show about Falun Gong, which China's leadership is trying to eradicate, deals with Chinese news reports about four Falun Gong followers setting themselves on fire in Beijing.
The documentary's producer, Peter Rowe, argues that the story was a hoax, set up by the Chinese government to make the spiritual movement seem cult-like and unstable.
Rowe said he was surprised the piece wasn't broadcast, saying it had been licensed by the CBC in 2004 and reviewed by senior CBC editors and the broadcaster's lawyers.
"If the American government had tried to put this pressure on the CBC not to run this kind of documentary, you can imagine what kind of reaction they would have had internally," he said. "With China, it's felt like we have to treat them in a very special way."
Both Rowe and Chipkar suggested the CBC's decision was influenced by its contract to carry the Beijing Olympics. Keay denied that.
Falun Gong has attracted millions of followers with a mix of traditional Chinese calisthenics and doctrines drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and the ideas of its founder, Li Hongzhi. China banned it as a threat to public safety and communist rule, calling it an "evil cult."
Human rights organizations have reported executions and torture of Falun Gong members in China. The State Department says practitioners face arrest, detention and possible torture.
