(Clearwisdom.net) Minghui reporter Dong Na reports from Toronto: In the lawsuit against La Presse Chinoise for slandering Falun Gong, the Chinese language newspaper has emphasized that it enjoys freedom of speech, and the articles it published were "criticism" of Falun Gong. It also spoke as if it were the victim, saying, "Falun Gong doesn't accept criticism." Were the articles published on La Presse Chinoise criticism or slander? Our reporter interviewed several practitioners who filed the lawsuit against the Chinese newspaper.

Falun Gong practitioner Dai Gongyu in Canada gave an example in illustrating this case: A person is carrying a red purse and another person sees her and says, "Red is not a good color for you, you should carry a black purse." This can be called criticism. However, if this person says, "Why are you carrying a trash bag?" That would constitute slander, because it is not based on facts and damages another person's reputation and dignity.

The defendant's attorney asked Toronto practitioner Jason Loftus in court, "Shouldn't speeches and opinions completely different from yours be protected?" Jason answered, "Of course people have the right to have different opinions. People can have their own understanding of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. However, if you spread rumors and say Falun Gong practitioners drink blood and kill people, that's not allowed, because they are not facts and this kind of slander hurts us Falun Gong practitioners. People can have different opinions based on the facts, but no one should instigate hatred."

Li Xiaoce, another Toronto practitioner used the example of the article written by He Bing published in La Presse Chinoise, "These words in La Presse Chinoise Eastern are completely vulgar curse words. Not everyone is able to use such base words. This is a most base and vulgar language. If we allow this kind of language to appear in the newspaper and to allow it to circulate in society, then we are actually disparaging the society and the country."

Li Xiaoce also said, "The slanderous language used in La Presse Chinoise Eastern is not criticism at all. It is not only slanderous and humiliating to the attacked, it is also slanderous and humiliating to all social groups. Therefore from the perspective of law and human dignity, La Presse Chinoise must take responsibility for it."

"Falun Gong practitioners' kind act of truth clarification was referred to as a í group attack' against the news agency. In order to prevent the filthy words from polluting society, Falun Gong practitioners bought newspapers with the slanderous article in them, cut out the article, and then gave the papers away for free. This act of theirs was referred to as í monopolizing.' The Chinese consulate officials attacked Falun Gong practitioners, yet they told the public the practitioners group attacked the consulate. The hatred-instigating words of the La Presse Chinoise completely replaced the truth with lies, and slanderously claimed that Falun Gong practitioners, who are kind people practicing Truth-Compassion-Tolerance, are thugs and fanatics." Falun Gong practitioner Zhou Limin said, "The methods used [by La Presse Chinoise Eastern] is a complete copy of the lie-spreading mechanisms employed by the Chinese government."

Practitioner Jason Loftus said in his witness account, "The author of the article published on La Presse Chinoise on November 3, 2001 claims to be a Falun Gong practitioner himself. He uses vulgar and malicious language to viciously attack Falun Dafa, its founder and Falun Gong practitioners. The article published on November 10, 2002, repeated the lies and propaganda used in Mainland China in an attempt to prove the correctness of the November 3rd article." What Jason considers the most dangerous is: "The February 2, 2002 article claims to seek 'justice and thinking for the future of society and the next generation,' and it publicly claimed Falun Gong should be eliminated in Canada." Jason said, "This is a complete copy of the Jiang regime's policy of persecution against Falun Gong.

Practitioner Wang Xueliang, who was beaten by Chinese consulate officials, said in court, "La Presse Chinoise intentionally used high-sounding phrases like 'for the Chinese race' and 'don't forget our children' in order to deceive people. These articles were also published in Mainland China. If you search carefully you will find that most websites in Mainland China published these slanderous articles. Moreover, La Presse Chinoise blatantly published these articles after the court had issued a safeguard order.

"In a totalitarian society, there is no freedom of speech; therefore people are more likely to believe in free media such as overseas newspapers. That's why it's more harmful to use the free media in the West to promote the persecution against Falun Gong."

Unbelievably, La Presse Chinoise ignores the fact that many Falun Gong practitioners benefited tremendously from practicing Falun Gong, and it exhausts all means to repeat the lies and propaganda originating from China that have been proven to be false. It even resorts to extremely vulgar and dirty language to slander Falun Gong, which in the end ruins the newspaper's own reputation. Who is supporting La Presse Chinoise behind the scenes? Li Xiaoce told our reporter that the head of La Presse Chinoise once told a Falun Gong practitioner, "In fact, this has nothing to do with me. They [the Chinese consulate officials] asked me to sit here [in court]." Li Xiaoce said, "As the head of a news agency, how can he say articles published in his newspaper have nothing to do with him? However, his words show that he is only a tool used by the consulate, and he has been placed here to work [for the Chinese government]."

In order to annihilate Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin created brainwashing classes in China to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief. In overseas countries, he tries to brainwash people through manipulating foreign governments and the media. Then he sends the overseas propaganda back to China to make the Chinese people feel the whole world is against Falun Gong.

Toronto practitioner Sun Dali used to work for the 30,000-employee Qingdao City's Haier Corporation in China. During the interview, he told the reporter that in early 2002, he saw articles written by Casey Lin (He Bing's pseudonym) published on many websites and media reports, and even on the bulletin board of his company. "My understanding is that all levels of government and companies received orders from the higher-ups, who ordered them to do so." Sun Dali said that such propaganda cannot always fool people who know modern China's history--especially people who have been through the Cultural Revolution--but it can deceive many inexperienced young people, especially students.

November 26, 2003