September 20, 2002

Beijing -- China handed prison terms of between four and 20 years to 15 members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement on Friday for [pre-empting] state television broadcasts, the Xinhua news agency said.

The Falun Gong followers were convicted [in a staged and highly publicized show trial] of damaging radio and television property, and of conspiring to use the group to undermine law enforcement, Xinhua said.

The convictions come in the midst of a push to ensure stability ahead of a Communist Party congress in November at which President Jiang Zemin and other leaders are widely expected to hand power to a younger generation.

The trials started on Wednesday in the city of Changchun in Jilin province, where some cable television broadcasts were [pre-empted] by Falun Gong videos.

Police rounded up the suspects after a March 5 incident in which trunk television cables serving parts of the city were cut off for more than three hours and pro-Falun Gong footage broadcast to some 16,000 viewers, Xinhua said [Editor's note: there should be over 100,000 viewers].

The group's New York-based information center branded the trial a mockery of justice.

"Throughout history, those who peacefully defy injustice and the persecution of the human spirit have been called heroes. Today, in this show-trial in Changchun, such people are being labeled 'criminals'," the Falun Gong information center said.

[...]

China has tightened media controls in the run-up to the party congress, including imposing a partial block on the internet search engine Google, apparently in a bid to cut off access to sensitive topics such as Falun Gong.

State television regulators issued a circular last month threatening to sack broadcasters if Falun Gong programmes were shown over their airwaves.

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