In totalitarian China, news is not "news" as we understand it in the West--that is, a factual dissemination of what is happening in the world, the nation, or the local area. Rather, the "news" is a carefully crafted package of material designed by the state-controlled media to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.

China's media are the mouthpiece of a vast state-run propaganda machine, and have played a leading role in the persecution of Falun Gong. By flooding the airwaves, newspapers, and magazines with countless stories vilifying Falun Gong and its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi, the Communist Party drafted the entire society into the ranks of the persecutors, creating an environment in which practitioners had no rights and no security. They could be attacked with impunity by anyone for any reason.

Conditioned to hate Falun Gong by the media, it became easy for the Chinese people to turn their heads away when they witnessed injustices taking place, and shut their ears to the cries of the tortured innocents.