By Li Zhen
Epoch Times Staff
Epoch Times Staff
Senior columnist Zhao Shaogen said that the article published under his name was not written by him. (Yu Gang/The Epoch Times)
A Hong Kong newspaper with ties to China’s communist regime recently published an attack on Falun Gong, falsely attributing it to a well-known author.
The author, Zhao Shaogen, who uses the penname Shugen, telephoned The Epoch Times after the article was published and said he had not actually written it.
The article published in Hong Kong Daily News attacks and mocks the activities of practitioners of the Falun Gong meditation discipline in Hong Kong, who are visible handing out leaflets to Chinese tourists about the persecution their practice suffers under the communist regime on the mainland.
“I did not write the article,” Zhao said. “It is a heavily biased news report. Whoever the author was, he should not have written it in such a way.”
As a Christian, Zhao said he respects Falun Gong as a belief system, and would never write articles criticizing other faiths.
Zhao said that he has asked the newspaper’s editorial office to remove the article from its website, but did not receive a reply.
The article has not been taken down despite Zhao’s requests.
Hong Kong Daily News is widely perceived as having ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and supporting a Chinese communist agenda in Hong Kong through its news pages. It has also recently begun publishing a number of articles attacking Falun Gong.
Zhao is concerned that he is not the only victim, and suspects that other columnists may have been impersonated as well. He stressed that the incident not only affected his personal reputation, but also endangers freedom of press in Hong Kong.
An investigation will be conducted by the Hong Kong Journalists Association, according to the association’s chairperson Mak Yinting. If the article is found to be fake, it would be a serious threat to freedom of press in Hong Kong, she said.
The Daily News was also recently criticized for another article it produced. On Dec. 2, the paper published a front-page article that appeared to incite hatred against mentally ill people. The Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong received over 130 complaints from the public against the article on the day it was published, and issued a statement condemning the article the following day.
Photographs recently emerged online showing the head of the Emperor Group, Albert Yeung, which controls the Hong Kong Daily News, with Hui Liangyu, a former high-level Party official and close associate of Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Communist Party that started the persecution of Falun Gong. Online commentators speculated that Yeung may ultimately be behind the Hong Kong Daily News’ attacks on the Falun Gong practice.
Read the original Chinese article.
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