Friends of Falun Gong USA (Tenafly, NJ), a Human Rights non-profit organization , has initiated a radio and fax campaign to educate Chinese-Americans about the peaceful spiritual practice of Falun Gong and the brutal persecution of its practitioners in China. The campaign is designed to counter the People's Republic of China's two-and-a-half year efforts to defame and undermine Falun Gong through manipulation of Chinese-American media.

Most western journalists remain unaware of the methods used by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to manipulate the minds and hearts of Chinese-speaking people outside of China. Friends of Falun Gong (FoFG) USA's radio and fax campaign targets key elements of the PRC's propaganda. For example, it addresses a purported self-immolation incident in which Falun Gong practitioners died. The Human Rights Commission of the United Nations, the Washington Post, and other independent media organizations have discredited this incident, suggesting that the appalling event was staged by the Jiang Zemin regime. A recent analysis of the Chinese government's video lays out the evidence (see: http://www.fofg.org/fofg/editorial/self-imm_mp.html).

Alan Adler, Director of Friends of Falun Gong USA, comments, "Our job is to convey what Falun Gong is really about, especially in light of the reprehensible actions of the Chinese government. Once people understand this peaceful practice and the brutal persecution its practitioners have endured, we hope they will join us in speaking out against this travesty. We hope to inspire Chinese Americans and others to raise their voices and pick up their pens to stop the injustice. Right now, we are targeting our communication efforts to Chinese-Americans because they have been the most misled. Our web site is a constant source of information in both English and Chinese to help people learn about Falun Gong and what they can do to help."

Radio Spots Airing in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey to Go Nationwide FoFG is currently broadcasting two one-minute informational radio ads in the Tri-state area, airing five times a day over the Chinese Radio Network (WGBB-AM 1240 and WCBS-FM/SCA 101.1) to an estimated daily audience of 150,000. In the next few months, the Mandarin radio spots will also air in key regions nationwide to a population of over 2 million Chinese-Americans. The radio spots can be heard on the FoFG web site (http://chinese.fofg.org).

Fax Campaign to 20,000 Chinese-American Business Owners Nationwide Each month, FoFG broadcasts informational faxes to thousands of Chinese-American business owners (excluding restaurants). The fax messages are keyed to both current events and major corrections to disinformation spread by the Chinese media machine. A complete listing of the faxes in Chinese is available on the FoFG web site (http://chinese.fofg.org).

Further Information For more on the Chinese government's methods for manipulating Chinese-speaking people outside of China, see an independent analysis by Mei Duzhe published in China Brief by the Jamestown Foundation entitled, "How China's Government is Attempting to Control Chinese Media in America"(http://www.fofg.org/fofg/news/jamestown_report.html).

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Friends of Falun Gong USA -- United to Support Falun Gong Practitioner's Freedom of Belief -- is a U.S.-based non-profit organization of individuals who firmly support and advocate for freedom of belief and other human rights. FoFG seeks to free the Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in the People's Republic of China and to end the persecution there. To this end, FoFG intends to obtain broad support for this cause, and to raise international awareness about the rights violations in the persecution of Falun Gong.