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Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Vancouverites protest torture-linked show

MEDIA ADVISORY

Falun Gong practitioners will gather at the corner of Gore and Keefer to protest Chinese New Year pop concert, sponsored by CCTV, China's state-run television station, called "The Same Song," slated to take place at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Monday, February 12.

The event billed as a celebration takes as its theme song a Chinese hit called, “The Same Song” (Tong Yi Shou Ge). However, According to torture victims, "The Same Song" was used in Chinese labour camps where Falun Gong practitioners were violently tortured into renouncing their beliefs.

Although the lyrics of the "Same Song" are benign it is sung by guards as a way of celebrating the breaking of the victims human spirit after intense torture, humiliation and brainwash sessions as he or she totally succumbs to the torturers and swears total allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party.

“It is like a demented ‘victory song’ … it haunts me to this day,” says Mr. Li, Xin, Falun Gong practitioner now living in Toronto who faced torture in the communist regime’s labour camp system. Multiple accounts suggest that the song has become a political instrument, used to effect psychological control and elicit trauma. It has also become a potent symbol of the state’s power over spiritual believers -- a veiled threat.

State owned CCTV has been a major force in the campaign to eliminate the Falun Gong in China through the mass dissemination of propaganda. On December 22, the CRTC released its long awaited decision on the application of 9 communist run TV channels, including CCTV4, looking for a permit to broadcast into Canada on a digital basis. The CRTC states that on multiple occasions, CCTV4 had aired hate inciting and/or abusive programming that “could incite violence and threaten the physical security of Falun Gong practitioners.” Unfortunately, the CRTC irresponsibly approved CCTV to broadcast here in Canada.

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