Review by the Ombudsman,
French Services
Complaint filed by the Falun
Dafa Association of Canada regarding the investigative report entitled Malaise
dans le Chinatown, broadcast on
October 30, 2008, on Télévision de Radio-Canada
SUMMARY
The complainants believe
that the investigative report Malaise
dans le Chinatown is erroneous,
manipulative and propagandistic, and has unjustly misrepresented, demeaned,
maligned and discriminated against the spiritual practice of Falun Gong.
The report would have been
more balanced had it contained an interview with Falun Gong spokespeople.
However, the spokespeople refused to grant an on- camera interview.
I have expressed
reservations about the selection of two interview clips and the formulation of
one question, but the report is otherwise based on serious research,
journalistic observations in the field, and analysis by recognized experts.
The complaints are
unfounded.
COMPLAINTS
On October 30, 2008, the
program Enquête broadcast an investigative report entitled Malaise
dans le Chinatown, probing the
Falun Gong movement's organization outside China and its impact on Chinese
communities, particularly the Chinese community in Montreal. Falun Gong is a
religious movement whose practitioners are persecuted by the Chinese
authorities. The story can be viewed at the link below:
http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/enquete/2008-
2009/Reportage.asp?idDoc=67209
The Ombudsman's office has
received some twenty complaints about the report. The Falun Dafa Association of
Canada, which represents Falun Gong members, has submitted a 28-page complaint
signed by its president, Xun Li, to the Ombudsman. Below is a brief excerpt:
"[...] their program
unjustly misrepresented, demeaned, maligned and discriminated against the
spiritual practice of Falun Gong, which is currently suffering a brutal and
internationally recognized persecution at the hands of China's Communist
regime. Their program also fabricated a deceptive impression of suspicion about
Falun Gong, thus undermining Falun Gong's efforts to raise awareness of the
brutal persecution at the hands of the Chinese regime...."
The full text of the
complaint is available at the link below:
http://xiuxian.no-
ip.info/rescue/upload_images/Submission_CBC_Ombudsman_FDAC-final.pdf
Radio-Canada management
responded to the complaint as follows:
"[...] The feature does
not deny that Falun Gong members living in China are experiencing serious
difficulties with the authorities. On the contrary, it clearly stated this
[that these difficulties exist].... We felt that the numerous legal proceedings
involving the Falun Gong in Canada, along with the many calls to the police
concerning the group's actions in Montreal, fully justified our interest in the
issue and our attempts to understand what was going on... " (See: Appendix
II : The full text of the response)
One of the people
interviewed, former Member of Parliament David Kilgour, also filed a complaint
with my office, in conjunction with David Matas, a lawyer. Mr. Kilgour and Mr.
Matas wrote a report on the allegations of organ harvesting among Falun Gong
practitioners:
"[...] The show
"Enquête" episode titled "Malaise in Chinatown" was
inaccurate, manipulative, propagandistic and spiteful in a myriad of
ways..."
Management defended the
story, but Mr. Kilgour and Mr. Matas were not satisfied with the explanations
they have received. The full text of their complaint can be viewed at the link
below:
http://ahdu88.blogspot.com/2008/12/david-matas-letter-to-ombudsman-on-
cbc.html
REVIEW
I met with the journalists
involved and two representatives from the Falun Dafa Association of Canada,
Lucy Zhou and Michael Mahonen, viewed unaired segments of the interviews in
question, and read the hundreds of pages of relevant documents provided by the
two parties.
Situation in
China
The complainants believe
that the report "did not provide the context of the persecution of Falun
Gong," and made "no attempt to examine numerous other forms of
persecution suffered by Falun Gong."
Below is a transcript of the
introduction to the broadcast, by host Alain Gravel:
"We heard a great deal
about the repression of Tibetans when the Olympic Games were held in Beijing.
But Tibetans are not the only group being persecuted: members of the religious
movement Falun Gong are also a target.
Falun Gong practitioners are
increasingly visible in expatriate Chinese communities, and Montreal's
Chinatown is no exception. This is an investigation of the little-known face of
Falun Gong, whose presence in our cities is making many feel uneasy. "
For about half the
introduction, the host focuses on the repression of Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners.
At almost the very beginning of the story, here is was is said on the
movement's historical context and violations of Falun Gong practitioners'
rights:
NARRATION: "We don't
know much about Falun Gong. Founded in China about fifteen years ago, it is a
discipline that promises to heal the body and the spirit. Its practice involves
stylized movement similar to tai chi, meditation, and the practice of the three
virtues: truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Within a very short time, the
movement drew tens of millions of practitioners in China."
INTERVIEW WITH LO.C TASSé,
CHINA-WATCHER, UNIVERSITé DE MONTRéAL: "The Falun Gong movement grew
inside China, but the Chinese government did not see it happen. This is the
central problem you see.The Chinese government is used to controlling any
association in China that can potentially exercise political influence."
NARRATION: "So the
Chinese government was amazed to see the size of the movement when 10,000
practitioners had the courage to challenge it on April 25, 1999: in silence,
they ringed Communist Party headquarters in Beijing to protest the arrest of
some of their number. This was ten years after the historic events in Tiananmen
Square. The Chinese government wasted no time in responding. Quickly banning
the practice of Falun Gong, it labelled the movement dangerous and antisocial,
and launched a campaign to eradicate it. Beijing also issued an international
warrant for the arrest of the movement's leader, Li Hongzhi, who lives in exile
in New York."
INTERVIEW WITH LO.C TASSé:
"The Chinese government is doing everything it can to break the movement
and eradicate it from China."
NARRATION: "Many
practitioners fled China and settled in all parts of the world. Some of them
obtained refugee status in Canada."
The introduction takes about
1 minute and 50 seconds. It is clear, and its statements are presented
unequivocally as facts:
"[...] launched a
campaign to eradicate [the movement]. [...] The Chinese government is doing
everything it can to break the movement and eradicate it from China...."
In its complaint, Falun Gong
provided many additional statistics on the extent of arrest and ill treatment
of its practitioners, and would have liked them to feature in the report. That
is understandable, but their absence does not mean the report is biased. With a
free press, journalists have a great deal of leeway in their editorial choices,
provided they comply with the three principles underpinning CBC/Radio-Canada's
Journalistic Standards and Practices: accuracy, fairness and integrity.
(Appendix I: Ombudsman’s Mandate)
Freedom of the
press and the public interest
Falun Gong would have liked
the Enquête report to focus on the persecution of its practitioners in China,
not on the tactics by which the movement responds to Chinese propaganda. In a
democratic society, however, editorial choices are not determined by religious
movements, pressure groups or governments. If it were, the press would no
longer be free.
Freedom of the press is a
cornerstone of our society, since freedom itself cannot flourish without the
free flow and exchange of ideas, opinions and information. (Journalistic
Standards and Practices [JSP], Preamble, 1)
Given that the press is
free, reporter Solveig Miller and producer Léon Laflamme had the right to
examine the means Falun Gong has developed to respond to the repression of its
movement in China. The team probed whether Falun Gong was actually presenting
the facts, or disseminating propaganda like the Chinese regime.
Critical reports on victim
advocacy groups are extremely sensitive, and there is no doubt this report
undermines Falun Gong's credibility by criticizing its methods. Journalists
should be aware of the consequences of their revelations, though consequence
cannot be their only criterion. For example, in exposing questionable
accounting methods applied in charitable institutions, the media may do some
harm to the causes those institutions support, but that is not sufficient
reason to refrain from investigating them.
The Falun Gong case is more
complex. When Western journalists criticize one of the principal movements
standing against the Chinese regime, their criticism bolsters the position of
the regime, which does everything in its power to discredit the group and
others like it. But is that reason enough to keep silent?
. Yes, write David Kilgour
and David Matas: otherwise, we confer legitimacy on a regime that disseminates
"hate propaganda" about its victims.
. No, says Jean Pelletier,
Senior Director in charge of the program Enquête: Canada is a democracy, and
journalists cannot start making ideological compromises. He adds that
Radio-Canada has aired critical reports on many aspects of the Chinese regime
before and during the Beijing Olympics. With Falun Gong, the investigation showed
the movement was exaggerating some aspects of its persecution. It had to be
reported, he pointed out, the credibility of Western journalists' views on
China is at stake.
Freedom of the press
guarantees that no issue is off limits, provided it is of public interest.
The production team –
Solveig Miller and Léon Laflamme – explained how they worked. When he attended
the Chinese New Year Spectacular in January 2008, Mr. Laflamme realized that
some of the choreography and songs were imbued with a pro-Falun Gong political
message. Yet there was nothing in the program to indicate that Falun Gong
sponsored the show. I leafed through the program for the 2008 show, and Mr.
Laflamme is quite right. In addition, New Year goodwill messages by Canadian
politicians printed in the program did not refer to Falun Gong either. That
sparked the question: why not openly state the movement was backing the show,
which had a political slant?
For her part, Ms. Miller was
struck by the revelations in Beyond the Red Wall (La persécution du Falun
Gong), a documentary on the alleged harvesting of organs from thousands of
Falun Gong practitioners, which aired on Radio-Canada.
Mr. Laflamme indicates he
spent about ten days in Montreal's Chinatown trying to learn more about Falun
Gong and its relationship with the rest of the Chinese community. That is where
Ms. Miller and Mr. Laflamme discerned, through numerous conversations, that the
movement's tactics were arousing some uneasiness.
I believe this to be a
public-interest issue, for a number of reasons. Understanding the tensions
within the Chinese community is of interest to the Canadian public. It is also
useful for people to understand the methods Falun Gong is using to draw the
Canadian public's attention to the repression it faces in China.
I find it readily apparent
that the Canadian spokespeople for Falun Dafa do not appreciate that aspect of
the investigation. They had the right to refuse their participation, as they
did after some six weeks of negotiation. There was a three- hour meeting
between Ms. Miller and Falun Dafa spokesperson Lucy Zhou, as well as many
telephone conversations and emails.
The team did not conceal the
angle of its report from Ms. Zhou, indicating its interest in Falun
Gong-controlled media, the movement's financial means, and the "propaganda
war" taking place in Chinatown between Falun Gong opponents and
practitioners – a war illustrated by the lawsuit filed against Crescent Chau.
Ms. Zhou told me she had given Ms. Miller a great deal of information on Falun Gong,
information to some extent corresponding to the file provided to me by the
movement, as indicated by Michael Mahonen. However, the material provided makes
no mention of the owners, financial statements, print runs and coverage of the
various media established by Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Miller told me Ms.
Zhou personally told her that La Grande époque was an independent newspaper,
even if Falun Gong practitioners worked on it; that the Falun Gong
practitioners were volunteers; and that all initiatives were spontaneous and
decentralized. However, she provided a great deal of information on the
repression of Falun Gong in China.
The complainants criticize
Ms. Miller for having failed to mention the meeting with Ms. Zhou in her
report. But a journalist is not obliged to report all meetings that occur
before the report is shot; the journalist's only obligation is to convey the
views of people against whom a serious allegation has been made, even if those
views are not provided on camera. In the report, Ms. Miller says:
"Falun Gong states it
has no organization and requires no financial contributions from its
practitioners. Everything is done on a volunteer basis.
He refused to speak to us on
camera, but assured us that his newspaper is completely independent and
objective."
It is short, but Ms. Zhou,
spokesperson of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, Olivier Chartrand,
Editor-in-Chief of La Grande époque, and the organizers of the Chinese New Year
Spectacular all refused to grant on-camera interviews. In those circumstances,
it is difficult for me to fault Radio-Canada for failing to give sufficient
prominence to the Falun Gong viewpoint. The team more than once offered Falun
Gong further chances to explain its position, a process in compliance with CBC/Radio-Canada's
Journalistic Standards and Practices:
[...] In investigative
programming, in the interest of fairness, opportunity should be given for all
parties directly concerned to state their case... (JSP, IV Production
Standards,11)
Falun Gong beliefs
The complainants state that
the program contains erroneous information on Falun Gong's beliefs. I asked
them for examples. Michael Mahonen did not provide specific examples, but
maintains that the aspects selected by Ms. Miller contribute to caricaturizing
Falun Gong and presenting its practitioners as bizarre and marginal people.
Falun Gong would have liked Ms. Miller to focus solely on the movement's
general principles, which are truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, as well
as non-violence. I read a number of articles and texts on the subject to
determine whether the report highlighted secondary and sensationalistic aspect
of Falun Gong's beliefs. Nothing led me to believe that was true: the law wheel
placed in the abdomen of practitioners seems to be a core element of the Falun
Gong belief system, since Li Hongzhi, the movement's grand master, refers to it
in his book, Turning the Law Wheel. The issue of extraterrestrials was
discussed at length by Li Hongzhi himself in a long interview with Time Asia
(May 10, 1999, Vol. 153, No. 18). Moreover, the fact that Li Hongzhi believes
himself to be one of the most important gods in the universe is undoubtedly of
interest.
Crescent Chau
and the lawsuit
According to the
complainants, in the report "Crescent Chau is portrayed as a leader in
Montreal's Chinese community, unfairly victimized by the Falun Gong."
They also criticize the
report for not revealing that the article published in Mr. Chau's newspaper
baldly accused Falun Gong practitioners of bestiality and vampirism. In fact,
the report states that the article accuses the spiritual leader and those
around him of committing "criminal and perverted acts". Radio-
Canada's Law Department advised that statements deemed defamatory by a court
may not be repeated. The journalist used terms that were more general, but not
erroneous.
I believe that the
complainants' perception arises from a very simple point: Crescent Chau indeed
has an advantage in this report. Since he granted an on- camera interview, the
audience can hear him express his own point of view, and that goes some way
towards humanizing him. Visually, the report sets an apparently calm man,
seated at his desk, against demonstrators chanting slogans.
Above and beyond perception,
the report clearly establishes that Crescent Chau sparked things off by
publishing an article linking Falun Gong with criminal and perverted acts. In
my view, Ms. Miller could at that point have drawn attention to the similarity
between those serious accusations and the Chinese regime's anti- Falun Gong
propaganda. The significant similarity is indeed pointed out, but later in the
narration:
"[...] his newspaper
also takes the opportunity to reprint anti-Falun Gong articles appearing in
Chinese state-controlled media."
Ms. Miller also points out
that, even though Falun Gong lost their appeal, the court ruled that the
article on criminal and perverted acts was defamatory. During our meeting, Ms.
Zhou stressed the fact that Falun Gong lost the appeal for technical reasons:
the defamation was specifically aimed at Li Hongzhi, who was not among the
appellants. That is accurate.
I find I have reservations
where Radio-Canada allowed Crescent Chau to speculate on the advantages some
countries would derive in using Falun Gong:
"It would be good for
some countries to support them for political reasons – the United States and
Taiwan, for example."
Crescent Chau does not have
the credibility needed to engage in political analysis. He is a businessman,
clearly conducting a campaign to defame Falun Gong in his newspaper.
In her decision, Justice
Jeannine Rousseau of the Quebec Superior Court described Mr. Chau as follows:
"As a publisher or
newspaperperson, Mr. Chau is not impressive. The general impression the Court
got from his testimony was that the newspaper was simply a pretext to sell
advertisements: The content of the "articles" was of little
importance."
The team points out that Mr.
Chau's statements were aired because he expressed out loud what many Canadians
of Chinese origin think in silence. That decision is debatable, because Mr.
Chau does not voice facts but speculates on the identities of parties
potentially interested in making use of Falun Gong.
Interviews
Ms. Miller interviewed David
Ownby of the Université de Montréal, a recognized expert on Falun Gong. I
listened to Professor Ownby's entire interview with Ms. Miller to determine
whether he had been incorrectly quoted. The finer shades of meaning in
Professor Ownby's thinking do not emerge in the report, but the excerpts
selected do reflect the content of the discussion. Here, I will include only
one excerpt in which Professor Ownby explains why Falun Gong has stopped
trusting Western journalists, and why practitioners have established their own
media:
"During last decade,
the practitioners have become somewhat paranoid. They believe that they were
ill-treated by journalists . It seems to them that all the journalists tend to
adopt the same attitude as the Chinese Government. So the practitionners
decided to publish a newspaper by themselves to publicize their beliefs. In
this way, they can reach the public directly without resorting to the
journalists and the media."
During the interview,
Professor Ownby was critical of the way Falun Gong cloaks itself in secrecy,
and of the methods it uses to disseminate its message. In his book, entitled Falun
Gong and the Future of China (Oxford
University Press, 312 pages, March 2008), Professor Ownby discusses the
movement's gradual politicization. Falun Gong frequently uses the courts to
make itself heard. It files lawsuits against Chinese leaders as soon as they
leave China: in 2006, 54 civil and criminal lawsuits were underway in 33
countries (page 219). According to Professor Ownby, the newspaper La Grande
époque, founded by Falun Gong practitioners, is so lacking in balanced
reporting that it resembles the anti-communist propaganda from Taiwan in the
1950s. While the movement was fairly open in the early 2000s, answers are now
becoming difficult to obtain, he writes. Even he, who is fairly sympathetic to
Falun Gong, was denied permission to visit the offices of La Grande époque and
interview the Editor-in-Chief. Lastly, he talks about the half-truths voiced by
the movement and its lack of transparency, aspects that inevitably feed the
suspicion Falun Gong practitioners have something to hide (pages 220 to 223).
Organ harvesting
Lawyer David Matas, former
Minister David Kilgour and Falun Gong practitioners believe that the
allegations of organ harvesting have been handled in a "biased and
misleading" manner. I read the latest Kilgour-Matas4 report as well as
United Nations documents on the subject, and watched the interviews in their
entirety.
In the report, a quote of a
short initial statement made by Mr. Kilgour during a press conference is very clear:
"If you read the report
...you'll be appalled, but at some point you better say that this is
happening."
The narration that follows
reveals that Falun Gong received Mr. Kilgour's support for its allegations that
thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China were butchered and their organs
sold.
However, in my view, the
french clip of Mr. Kilgour's interview can be confusing to ordinary viewers not
familiar with the issue:
"We provided 33 means
of proof. For reasons, for people who are independent, intelligent and
understand the world as it really is, I think they will have no doubt about
this."
What is a means of proof,
for instance?
The complainants would have
liked the report to explain the content of the Kilgour report. It is true that
only 40 seconds were allocated to coverage of the Kilgour report. However, the
team deliberately chose experts sympathetic to the movement, David Ownby and
Amnesty International, to assess the Kilgour report's credibility. It would
have been unfair of Radio-Canada to ask recognized Falun Gong opponents to
criticize it and granted them time without giving equal time to its authors.
In the Enquête report,
Professor Ownby states:
"I read [Mr. Kilgour's]
report carefully. Since it's hard to get the first-hand testimony, they had to
resort to third-hand sources. They concluded what they could. Organ harvesting
is happening in China, but I see no evidence proving it is aimed particularly
at Falun Gong practitioners."
Further on in the interview,
Professor Ownby says he is on the side of well- known dissident Harry Wu on the
issue. In his book Falun Gong and the Future of China, he voices the same
thought even more clearly:
"There appears to be
little evidence that imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners have been a particular
target of the practice or that concentration camps have been set up to
facilitate the harvesting of practitioners' organs. On the other hand, it seems
likely that Falun Gong practitioners who are part of the prison population
would be candidates for harvesting, in part because at least some practitioners
are young and healthy, in part because the movement has been vilified within
China (...) But Falun Gong spokespeople clearly overplayed their hand when they
talked about concentration camps (or even a network of some thirty-six
concentration camps) and the huge numbers of prisoners who have been victims of
the practice (...) Sadly, when the evidence is not forthcoming to substantiate
the charges, Falun Gong inevitably loses credibility and third-party observers
come to doubt all information provided by Falun Gong sources – and not just the
sensational claims. This is unfortunate, for even if concentration camps do not
exist, the persecution of Falun Gong has been real." (pages 224 to 226)
Amnesty International, which
has frequently denounced the repression of Falun Gong, investigated the issue
in China and was unable to confirm the movement's allegations of organ
harvesting. In an unaired portion of the interview, Amnesty International
spokesperson Anne Ste. Marie even said that some telephone interviews in
Chinese hospitals had been edited.
Mr. Wu also sent teams to
the hospital in Sijiatun, where 2,000 corneas were allegedly harvested by force
from Falun Gong practitioners, and found no signs of mass murder. Mr. Wu
believes that allegation to be a lie. In the complainants' view, this does not
mean Mr. Wu repudiates the entire Kilgour report. I listened to the interview
in its entirety. Clearly, Mr. Wu does not consider anything Mr. Kilgour has
written on the issue to be credible, and believes that if 4,500 Falun Gong
practitioners had had their organs harvested, there would be at least one
witness somewhere willing to talk about it. Mr. Wu was also fairly sympathetic
to the movement until the organ harvesting allegations surfaced in 2006, and he
can certainly never be accused of supporting the Chinese regime.
The United Nations documents
I consulted always used the terms "allegations" and
"claims" in referring to organ harvesting among Falun Gong
practitioners. And though it is quite true that the United Nations Committee
Against Torture is pressing the Chinese government to investigate the matter in
order to determine where the transplanted organs come from, that is no evidence
Falun Gong is being targeted.
The complainants several
times returned to the fact that Professor Ownby and others do not deny the
organs of Falun Gong practitioners have been harvested.
That is plausible. Given of
the government's repression of the movement, Falun Gong practitioners are imprisoned.
The government admits that inmates who are sentenced to death have their organs
harvested for transplant; some Falun Gong practitioners are therefore likely to
be among them.
That is not the issue,
however. Falun Gong alleges that its practitioners are specifically targeted
for organ harvest, and that thousands of them have been butchered in what are
nothing better than concentration camps. That is the issue raised in the
Radio-Canada report.
Chinese New Year
Spectacular
The complainants found that
Ms. Miller's comments on the Chinese New Year Spectacular also demonstrated a
bias against Falun Gong. Until last year, there was no mention in the show's
brochures or programs to indicate it was organized by Falun Dafa. The
production is funded by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), a satellite TV
network based in New York and financed by Falun Gong practitioners. The
omission led to articles in the Los Angeles Times (January 7, 2008) and New
York Times (February 6, 2008). New York Times reporter Eric Konigsberg
questioned audience members, who did not appreciate being left unaware of the
show's political dimension. Radio-Canada is therefore not the only media entity
to have noted Falun Gong's lack of transparency. I tried to ask the
complainants why they were not more open. Mr. Mahonen replied it was
unnecessary. Ms. Zhou added that the show was a reflection of true Chinese
culture, which is being crushed by the Chinese government. In an unaired
portion of the interview, Professor Ownby explained that some members of the
Chinese community do not like Falun Gong's portrayal of itself as the only
repository of true Chinese culture.
The complainants criticized
the report for allowing lawyer and former Bloc québécois candidate May Chiu to
say that, in her opinion, the show is a Falun Gong recruitment tool. That is
Ms. Chiu's opinion, not Ms. Miller's. The complainants also believe that the
report should have included audience members' positive comments about the show.
But the question is not whether the show itself is a good one; it is whether
the show's organizers should have been more transparent. The offices of Premier
Charest and the Mayor of Montreal believe the organizers should indeed have
been more transparent. Both politicians supported the show without being aware
of Falun Gong's involvement.
Tension in
Chinatown
The complainants contest the
fact that their militant activities are generating tension within the Chinese
community. In their view, the tension is due solely to Crescent Chau and the
anti-Falun Gong propaganda the Chinese government is having disseminated
through the newspapers it controls outside China. That is not what Ms. Miller
observed on speaking with local businesses. One local business owner, whose
testimony I read, was very indignant because Falun Gong wanted her to take
Crescent Chau's newspapers off her shelves because they challenged the
truthfulness of the organ harvest scandal. There are doubtless a variety of
factors contributing to the unease, among others, the business relationships
that importers want to maintain with the Chinese authorities. Community worker
May Chiu summarized the general atmosphere:
"There is a concern
about the power of Falun Gong, and at the same time there is another concern
about the Chinese government. So people might feel caught between those two
opposing powers and not really know where to stand."
The investigation showed
that Falun Gong – which is a victim advocacy movement – has a newspaper, radio
network and television network, and even a New Year spectacular, to spread its
message. It therefore wields a certain amount of power. In Montreal's
Chinatown, the movement has a very significant presence, too significant for
some, and the police report I read reveals that many of its demonstrations fail
to comply with the city's by-laws.
Ms. Zhou complained that her
image was used in two Falun Gong demonstrations. The courts have indeed ruled
that an ordinary citizen has the right to control the use of his or her own
image.
But according to a document
on the Falun Dafa Information Center website (www.faluninfo.net/contact.asp),
Ms. Zhou is one of Falun Gong's two Canadian spokespeople. She was present at
two demonstrations, the stated purpose of which was to attract public
attention. In those circumstances, it is difficult for her to claim her image
cannot be used and identified because she is nothing more than an ordinary
citizen.
Ms. Zhou also said that the
May 2 demonstration in Ottawa was organized not by herself but by her husband.
However, in an email sent to Parliament Hill on the very morning of the
demonstration, the name "Lucy Zhou" and Ms. Zhou's telephone number
appear on Falun Gong's notice to the press.
Lastly, one might ask why
the report would twice include images of Ms. Zhou blocking the camera lens with
her hand. According to the producer, those images symbolize the lack of
transparency Falun Gong demonstrated throughout the investigation. The team
even said that, as soon as Ms. Zhou saw the Radio-Canada cameraman preparing to
film the Chinatown demonstration, she asked demonstrators doing meditation
exercises to disperse.
The complainants criticize
the fact that the report mentions the death threat Mr. Chau received in a
letter. The reporting of such allegations is always sensitive, because they could
simply be fabricated.
Yet the death threat was in
the public domain, since Mr. Chau had printed it on the front page of his
newspaper. The Chinese community was aware of it. If Mr. Chau had spoken of the
death threat to no one, and if there had been no police report on it,
mentioning it on air would have been unacceptable.
However, I consider that Ms.
Miller's question to Mr. Chau on the death threat is not neutral:
"What makes you think
it's from Falun Gong?"
It was inappropriate to
mention Falun Gong, given the lack of evidence the threat came from the
movement.
Reputation of
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
Falun Gong recalls the
controversy involving the documentary on Falun Gong, Beyond the Red Wall,
broadcast on CBC by the Corporation's English Services; it states that CBC has
apparently failed to be objective about Falun Gong in the past. I have told the
complainants, and will say it again, that CBC/Radio- Canada's French Services
and English Services make their own editorial choices, based on their own
criteria. In any case, different versions of the documentary – Beyond the Red
Wall and La persécution du Falun Gong – aired on CBC and Radio-Canada. The
investigative report Malaise
dans le Chinatown is an idea
sparked in the mind of a Radio-Canada producer interested in China, and CBC was
not involved in the project in any way. Both CBC and Radio- Canada, however,
are subject to the same Journalistic Standards and Practices.
Conclusion
With a free press,
Radio-Canada has the right to investigate the organization and tactics of Falun
Gong, as well as the truthfulness of Falun Gong's statements, provided that it
complies with the principles of accuracy, fairness and integrity.
The report would have been
more balanced had it contained an interview with Falun Gong spokespeople.
However, the spokespeople refused to grant an on- camera interview.
I have expressed
reservations about the selection of two interview clips and the formulation of
one question, but the report is otherwise based on serious research,
journalistic observations in the field, and analysis by recognized experts.
The complaints that Malaise
dans le Chinatown is erroneous,
manipulative and propagandistic, and has unjustly misrepresented, demeaned,
maligned and discriminated against the spiritual practice of Falun Gong, are
unfounded.
Julie Miville-Dechêne
Ombudsman, French Services
CBC/Radio-Canada
January 27, 2009
APPENDIX I:
Ombudsman's Mandate
The Ombudsman
...determines whether the journalistic
process or the broadcast involved in the complaint did, in fact, violate the
Corporation's journalistic policies and standards ...
also known as the
Journalistic Standards and Practices (JSP, available at
http://cbc.radio-canada.ca/accountability/journalistic/index.shtml).
The journalistic policy is
based on three basic principles: accuracy, fairness and integrity.
Accuracy: The information conforms with
reality and is not in any way misleading or false. This demands not only
careful and thorough research but a disciplined use of language and production
techniques, including visuals.
Integrity: The information is truthful,
not distorted to justify a conclusion. Broadcasters do not take advantage of
their power to present a personal bias.
Fairness: The information reports or
reflects equitably the relevant facts and significant points of view; it deals
fairly and ethically with persons, institutions, issues and events
(JSP, III, 2)
The Corporation's
journalistic policy consists of a body of rules that it has established over
the years. Those rules, aimed at developing journalism founded on excellence,
go well beyond the requirements of the Broadcasting Act. They set a standard
that is difficult to attain, but that all journalists must strive for.
A detailed description of
the Ombudsman's mandate is also available at
http://www.cbc.ca/ombudsman/page/mandate.html.
APPENDIX II:
Response from Radio-Canada to the complaint
Dear Sir or Madam,
Some of our audience members
wrote in with comments about our feature report .Malaise dans le Chinatown., broadcast
in the October 30 episode of Enquête.
This feature report aimed to
explore the importance of the organization Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) outside
China, and its impact on Chinese communities living in the West, specifically
in Montreal.
The group and its activities
are still relatively unknown. For instance, few Canadians are aware of the
extent of the Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) media network highlighted in our report.
It is completely understandable, and in the interests of the public, that a
news network like ours explore the structures, beliefs, funding and actions of
a movement that has gained significant momentum in such a short period
throughout the world.
The feature did not deny
that Falun Gong members living in China are experiencing serious difficulties
with the authorities. On the contrary, it clearly stated this, and Radio-
Canada has broadcast a number of reports on the topic in the past.
However, the public
broadcaster's mission is to present various viewpoints on major controversial
issues. This time, we chose to look at the Falun Gong from another perspective.
We made this decision entirely independently, for journalistic reasons. Some
have alleged that we were seeking to curry favour with the Chinese government.
We completely refute these baseless allegations.
We felt that the numerous
legal proceedings involving the Falun Gong in Canada, along with the many calls
to the police concerning the group's actions in Montreal, fully justified our
interest in the issue and our attempts to understand what was going on.
Our investigation was
conducted with the utmost care and all facts were checked several times. We
gathered information from many reliable sources. A number of the personal
accounts are included in our report.
Some of our viewers complained
that we did not interview Falun Gong leaders in Canada to get their
perspectives. In fact, we made several attempts to elicit the viewpoints of
Canadian and American leaders of Falun Dafa (Falun Gong), but were met with
refusals.
To conclude, we believe that
we aired a feature report that was of public interest and factually accurate
and in accordance with our standards and practices.
We hope that you find these
comments helpful. If not, and if you deem it necessary, we remind you that you
can ask Radio-Canada's Ombudsman to review the case.
I thank you for writing to
us.
Sincerely,
Geneviève Guay
Director, Complaints Handling
Information, French Services
(Radio-canada.ca, January 27, 2009)
