Dow Jones: Falun Gong Spokesman Comments on the "Video Overriding" in China [Excerpt]

July 8, 2002

According to DJ's reprint of an AP report, China's government Monday [claimed] what it called another case of video [overriding] by Falun Gong, saying the banned spiritual movement interrupted a peak-hour broadcast aimed at rural areas of China last month to air [pro-Falun Gong messages].

[...]

"We have no knowledge of such a broadcast. We know that all prior broadcasts have been grassroots efforts from practitioners inside China," Falun Gong spokesman Levi Browde said in New York.

"These broadcasts are just one of the ways they're trying to break the information blockade - to get the word out about the persecution that's really happening in China," Browde said. "They have no voice in the state-run media."

Officials made the announcement at what they termed a news conference, though they took only two questions before adjourning it and leaving.

They said the [overriding] took place during news reports between 7 and 7:30 p.m. on June 23. During that period, the government said, programming on the special channel went blank intermittently and was replaced by clips showing Falun Gong mass gatherings in China, apparently before the government banned the group in 1999.

[...]

In the past year, Falun Gong supporters have interrupted cable broadcasts in at least six cities during the past year, often simply showing banners that say "Falun Dafa is good." Falun Dafa is another name for the spiritual movement [...]

People arrested in some of the [overriding] incidents have been sentenced to up to 16 years in prison.