UK Practitioners Clarify the Truth at the BBC World Service

An internal training seminar was held at the BBC World Service in London entitled "Falungong in China" on 31 October 2000. The BBC World Service is the international radio broadcasting service of the BBC.

The aim of the training was to inform the BBC journalists about Falun Gong. The organisation had invited a representative from Amnesty International, the Press Counsellor from the Chinese Embassy and one of their own Chinese producers to talk about Falun Gong. No Falun Gong practitioners had been invited.

A few days before the seminar was due to take place, UK practitioners found out about this training. A practitioner contacted the BBC and explained the importance of including Falun Gong practitioners on a panel, which was to inform the journalists about Falun Gong. After a second telephone conversation the person in charge agreed to our inclusion in the seminar. As the agreement came the day before the training session, some practitioners quickly worked together to prepare the materials for the seminar.

Twenty five BBC journalists attended the seminar. Before the seminar began, one of the practitioners was able to distribute some materials to the journalists. The Chairperson allocated everybody 10 minutes for their presentation except the Press Counsellor from the Chinese Embassy who was given 15 minutes.

The practitioners present were aware of the negativity in the environment but were also aware of the valuable opportunity that they had been given to expose the evil, clarify the truth and validate the Fa.

The Chinese producer from the BBC, who had been invited to talk about qigong (being a qigong practitioner himself), soon began saying negative things about Falun Gong. It was difficult for the practitioners present to hear the lies and the evil words coming from both this person and the Chinese Press Counsellor but we were not moved or distracted from our mission to present the truth.

The representative from Amnesty International showed us many lessons with her calm and thoughtful presentation. She stressed that the suppression against Falun Gong was politically motivated and there were many illegalities and human rights abuses in the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners.

As practitioners we tried our best to explain the truth. As we reflected afterwards we could have done better. We also felt that we had managed to break through the initial barrier and make ourselves present in an environment which had originally been set up to damage Dafa. With our presence we had taken an important step in the process of telling people the truth in this particular environment. We were told that representatives from the Chinese Embassy never come to the BBC World Service to talk about such matters. We knew why they had come and were glad to be given the chance to defend the Fa.

After the seminar, we wrote to the various people involved. We also wrote to the Press Counsellor and the Chinese producer asking them to re-consider what they said and to do what is morally right regarding Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners in China.

As a result of the seminar, we have established some contacts within the BBC World Service and we are sending them further information in the process of clarifying the truth. We are also sending information to other media organisations offering to present seminars or give talks on Falun Gong using the BBC experience as a reference.