Many might remember an incident where Zhang Danhong, the Chinese editor of Deutsche Welle's CCP-friendly Chinese program, accused Focus program journalist Guenther Baehr of having a Falun Gong background. The critique arose from comments Ms. Zhang aired that were actually the words of Xinhua's Berlin correspondent Shi Xiang, who said the "Focus program journalist has a Falun Gong background." Xinhua published this on August 28, 2008, without availing themselves of the facts. How does one see this latest propaganda attempt? Focus officials have since filed a lawsuit against Xinhua.
Instead of abiding by accepted protocols of investigative journalism, Xinhua operates strictly along their own rules and logic, meaning everything that happens serves as a propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
On September 12, 2008 Focus editor-in-chief Helmut Markwort reiterated that their editor is in no way connected with Falun Gong, and the magazine took legal action against Xinhua. "The likely state-ordered smear against Focus through this so-called news agency is simply absurd," he said.
Xinhua and Falun Gong
According to Waltraud Ng, Falun Gong spokesperson, "Xinhua is only too well aware that the CCP has thus fostered, encouraged and perpetuated hatred against the spiritual movement and continues its persecution against it. This has persisted since 1999, and it appears the regime had achieved its goal once again through the "Deutsche Welle" propaganda report, just as the regime had counted on the effects of a propaganda blitz following the Sichuan earthquake. The regime defamed Falun Gong saying, ‘The followers are happy this tragedy happened, and that the heavens want to make China disappear.’ According to additional propaganda, Falun Gong is supposed to have derailed offers of help for the victims. What the CCP does not mention are their [CCP] sanctioned, state-ordered ruthless personal acts and the brutal assault on Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing, New York.”
She continued, "Falun Gong comes from China and belongs to the traditional essence of cultivation [of mind and body]. The practice is neither against China, nor against the Chinese nation. But Falun Gong practitioners have shown the CCP their determination through nine years of peaceful protests of the persecution to insist on a proper cultivation environment. It is the CCP that had purposely twisted the meaning of ‘anti-CCP’ and ‘anti-China’ and created confusion in people's minds."
Xinhua's Further Aims
The above event is not Xinhua's only goal. According to the Falun Gong Information Center, Xinhua aims to create a credibility gap regarding Western media reliability and objectivity in people's minds. Additionally, they want readers to get to the point "where they are unable to discern true reporting when it comes to information from people who have a Falun Gong background." This was a veiled attempt to include information available from The Epoch Times.
Shi Xiang's inflammatory Xinhua article included these comments, "A Cologne-based Falun Gong-controlled Epoch Times journalist writes daily e-mails to Deutsche Welle officials, stating that Zhang Danhong had compromised the ethics of the media, and that The Epoch Times had published an article on August 26, to have celebrated Zhang's resignation."
In actuality, The Epoch Times neither has a journalist based in cologne, nor had anyone written to Deutsche Welle regarding Zhang. An article as he describes does not exist.
One Party-One Mouthpiece for the Nation
According to Reporters without Borders, everything and everything revolves around and from Xinhua, the Chinese regime-controlled media, and Xinhua is the premier, state-owned/sanctioned propaganda agency in the world. The agency's editor's post is at ministerial level. Almost one third of the news about China when searching Google is Xinhua-created.
The media has been under the control of the CCP since 1949. Though a limited media liberalization regarding economic issues is evident, Xinhua remains the only Party organ in China. Handpicked journalists who are subjected to ongoing indoctrination produce all reports for the media, mirroring the official stance on everything. These individuals also produce "internal reference reports," slated exclusively for the nation's ruling elite.
Following heavy criticism for Xinhua's lack of transparency and the abysmal handling of reporting the SARS epidemic in 2003, the news organ had published certain news items that showed the regime to a disadvantage. But, we presume this was merely a token gesture to the international community, because such reports were never published in Chinese in mainland China.
