Monday, July 9, 2012

When Getting the Truth Means Breaking the Law




Chinese authorities have accused Chung Ting-pang, a Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioner with endangering state security by disrupting TV signals. Though state-run media did not specify why he did this, and it is unknown whether the charges are true, the case resembles those in 2002 and 2003 when several Falun Gong practitioners tapped into cable TV in China to broadcast information about the Chinese regime’s persecution of the spiritual practice. Chinese authorities regarded the signal tapping as serious breaches of the law, and promptly sent those responsible to jail. Many of the Falun Gong practitioners died from torture and abuse there.
Erping Zhang, the spokesperson of the Falun Dafa Information Center talks about Chung’s case, using examples from his own college days in China where him and his classmates, too, “broke the law” in order to broadcast and access real news and information.
So should these acts of “breaking the law” really be regarded as such, when the Chinese Communist Party rides above universal values and China’s own constitution to keep out information it deems undesirable?
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