Response from Radio-Canada to the complaint about Falun gong coverage

 Dear Sir or Madam,

Some of our audience members wrote in with comments about our feature report .Malaise dans le Chinatown., broadcast in the October 30 episode of Enquête. 

This feature report aimed to explore the importance of the organization Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) outside, and its impact on Chinese communities living in the West, specifically in . 

The group and its activities are still relatively unknown. For instance, few Canadians are aware of the extent of the Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) media network highlighted in our report. It is completely understandable, and in the interests of the public, that a news network like ours explore the structures, beliefs, funding and actions of a movement that has gained significant momentum in such a short period throughout the world. 

The feature did not deny that Falun Gong members living in are experiencing serious difficulties with the authorities. On the contrary, it clearly stated this, and has broadcast a number of reports on the topic in the past. 

However, the public broadcaster's mission is to present various viewpoints on major controversial issues. This time, we chose to look at the Falun Gong from another perspective. We made this decision entirely independently, for journalistic reasons. Some have alleged that we were seeking to curry favour with the Chinese government. We completely refute these baseless allegations. 

We felt that the numerous legal proceedings involving the Falun Gong in, along with the many calls to the police concerning the group's actions in , fully justified our interest in the issue and our attempts to understand what was going on. 

Our investigation was conducted with the utmost care and all facts were checked several times. We gathered information from many reliable sources. A number of the personal accounts are included in our report. 

Some of our viewers complained that we did not interview Falun Gong leaders in to get their perspectives. In fact, we made several attempts to elicit the viewpoints of Canadian and American leaders of Falun Dafa (Falun Gong), but were met with refusals. 

To conclude, we believe that we aired a feature report that was of public interest and factually accurate and in accordance with our standards and practices. 

We hope that you find these comments helpful. If not, and if you deem it necessary, we remind you that you can ask Radio-Canada's Ombudsman to review the case. 

I thank you for writing to us. 

Sincerely, 

Geneviève Guay 

Director, Complaints Handling 

Information, French Services 

 Original text from: http://www.radio-canada.ca/apropos/lib/v3.1/pdf/revfalungongenglish.pdf