Friday, June 21, 2002
Enthusiastic Journalists
In the early morning of June 13, a group of practitioners arrived at Tallinn, the sleeping capital of Estonia, after an overnight journey. Tallinn is the third stop of Jiang's visit. Having found a hotel, practitioners started their continuous activities. Those responsible for meeting with the government went to visit the government officials; those preparing for the press conference started contacting the media and other preparation work. At 11:30a.m when Jiang's group just arrived at their hotel in Tallinn, journalists were stepping into the hotel next door for the press conference organized by Falun Gong practitioners.
Even though there were only two hours to contact the media, the two largest newspapers and the largest TV station of Estonia, together with other media reporters all attended. They filmed scenes of practitioners doing the exercises, asked many questions, interviewed individual practitioners and watched the video of "Self-Immolation in Tiananmen Square: A Staged Tragedy?" Some of the journalists revealed that a month prior to Jiang's visit, the Chinese government had especially sponsored and invited the local media officials and other journalists to visit Mainland China, intending to prevent them from revealing the truth. A reporter who understood the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong repeatedly inquired about how he could help; he even took the initiative to provide much important information. That night the TV station and the next morning's newspapers all reported the situation of Falun Gong.
Rumors unable to deceive the public; Estonia's police realize the truth
During Jiang's visit, as usual quoting anti-terrorism and security as reasons, he requested the local police to take strict precautions against potentially opposing parties, including Falun Gong Practitioners.
At noon on June 13, in front of the hotel Jiang stayed in, a Swedish couple distributed materials regarding the truth of the persecution of Falun Gong to the pedestrians. The Chinese special agents rushed to the practitioners with a camera, threatening to take pictures. A female practitioner openly raised a badge that said, "Falun Dafa is good" to the Chinese special agent's camera. After the agents left, Estonia's policemen were called to move the practitioners away. Two practitioners seized this opportunity to carry out a two-hour long discussion with the policemen of the local security department, and showed them the pictures of practitioners in Mainland China being persecuted. Eventually, the police open-heartedly said, "Actually we know that Falun Gong practitioners are all very peaceful. We are not worried about you at all. Our pressure came from the Chinese government." Subsequently, they asked our practitioners if the Chinese special agents had disturbed them. Before the practitioners left, the Estonian police requested our practitioners to regularly send them information regarding Falun Gong in the future.
The next day, Estonia's nationwide newspaper utilized three quarters of its front page to report about the persecution of Falun Gong in China; it even published a large photograph of practitioners doing the exercises.