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The media-savvy Falun Gong

2011-03-22 Author:By Richard Burger

Say what you will about the evil cult. One thing that can’t be denied is their understanding of media relations and their ability to catapult controversial and emotionally wrenching stories into the eye of the public around the world.

When news of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China hit the media in Canada last week, it marked yet another victory for the group’s members in bringing attention to an incident the Chinese government denies exists.

The news was relayed to the media through a press conference on Parliament Hill. Two high profile individuals, former MP and cabinet minister David Kilgour, and David Matas, a Winnipeg-based international human rights lawyer, released a gruesome report accusing the Chinese government of illegally harvesting the organs of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners in China. The report said an estimated 41,500 transplants were performed using organs of Falun Gong members who were killed while in prison between 2000 and 2005.

Not only did the success of getting major media attention highlight the plight of the high-profile Chinese group (the story was covered in all the major news media including the Globe and Mail, National Post and the CBC) but it also showed how savvy Falun Gong members in North America have become in using the media to further their objectives.

Now, whether a word of it is true or not is another story. Whenever the Wheelers make extravagant claims such as this I am automatically skeptical, based purely on their track record of, shall we say, exaggeration - just as I become skeptical when I see dazzling statistics put forward by the CCP, or claims by Bush assuring us for the umpteenth time that the Iraq insurgency has been defeated. But when it comes to PR, the FLG is doing a hell of a job, and one can only marvel at their ability to get respected Canadian officials to help do their marketing and inject their messages into mainstream media around the world.



Original text from:  http://www.pekingduck.org/2006/07/the-media-savvy-falun-gong/

 

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