China's State-Run TV Sued over Propaganda
3/14/2008 9:35:00 AM
Go More In-Depth
Read the Article in The Epoch Times
WONG:
A U.S. lawyer representing Falun Gong adherents filed an appeal this week in a case against China Central Television. Also called CCTV, the network is China's official TV news agency, controlled in part by the Communist Party's Propaganda Department. The plaintiffs in the case are charging CCTV with aiding and inciting the communist regime's genocide of people who practice Falun Gong. Here's more.
STORY:
Terri Marsh is a lawyer in Washington D.C. Her clients are a group of Falun Gong adherents currently residing in the U.S. after having been imprisoned and tortured in China because of their spiritual beliefs.
Marsh says CCTV's anti-Falun Gong propaganda programs have played a central role in dehumanizing adherents through deliberate misinformation--and CCTV has also helped incite police and prison guards to subject the religious group to a campaign of persecution that relies on prolonged sessions of intense torture.
The case argues that this type of hate-propaganda was once used by the Nazis against the Jews…and is now being used by the Chinese regime against Falun Gong.
[Terri Marsh, Lawyer]:
"This case is about the role of propaganda in campaigns of genocide and ethnic cleansing… The images of the target are always the same, and the message that follows is always the same: 'kill them or they will destroy you.' And what follows is always the same: genocide and ethnic cleansing."
Marsh says that since July of 1999, when the Chinese regime launched its eradication campaign against Falun Gong, CCTV has continuously broadcast propaganda meant to incite hatred of Falun Gong practitioners and to justify the regime's violent persecution through imprisonment and torture.
CCTV broadcasts its programs globally on several satellite channels, and is even carried by major cable networks in the U.S., giving it major influence on people worldwide.
[Terri Marsh, Lawyer]:
"People in the United States, and outside of China, of late, have begun to confuse the images of Falun Gong that have been created by the Chinese authorities--and that justify the persecution--that these images have been confused with what Falun Gong really is and who these practitioners of Falun Gong really are."
Monday's appeal was filed at the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. It seeks to get a declaratory judgment against CCTV, as well as punitive damages.
Marsh says she's confident that the case will succeed and the court will deliver justice.
This is Matt Gnaizda, NTD, New York.
WONG:
More info about this groundbreaking lawsuit is available from our media partner,
