A last-ditch move to delay a lawsuit accusing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) of inaccurate reporting, and fomenting hatred against a group of dissidents, succeeded earlier this week.
Australia’s taxpayer-funded national broadcaster faced complaints from adherents of the persecuted spiritual practice, Falun Gong, many of whom continue to be subjected to human rights abuses by China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The ABC was accused of inaccurate and biased reporting on Falun Gong via its programming, which is alleged to have stirred up “undeserved hatred and hostility” in the public towards adherents of the practice in Australia.
The programs in question are four episodes of the podcast series Background Briefing, and an episode of the television series Foreign Correspondent, which was broadcast on multiple platforms owned by the ABC.
The ABC has argued that its programs were produced in the public interest, an available exception under Section 11. However, it is not arguing the exception that its program was a “fair and accurate report of any event.”
The action began in late 2021 in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) with physical hearings in August 2023.
After a one-month recess where both parties were given a chance to submit their arguments on the matter, Senior Member Charles Powles—who presided over the hearing—decided it was best to refer the matter to a judicial member of VCAT on whether the tribunal could make a decision.
The senior member said in referring the matter that he had to weigh up the “circumstances in which the [jurisdictional] issue had been raised this late in the proceeding” as well as the “stress and anxiety” it would cause Falun Gong practitioners, “many of whom are refugees who came to Australia.”
“While I give these factors some weight ... whether to refer [this matter] under Section 77 [that says a matter can be shifted to another court if deemed more appropriate] is the factor that outweighs everything else, as far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Powles told the hearing on Dec. 19.
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice of self-cultivation in the Buddhist tradition, and teaches truth, compassion, and forbearance (Zhen 真, Shan 善, Ren 忍 in Chinese)—deemed to be the underlying characteristics of the universe.
It was first introduced to the public in China in 1992 by founder Mr. Li Hongzhi. It spread rapidly, mostly by word-of-mouth, and by 1999, a Chinese government survey estimated that around 70 to 100 million people were practicing all across the country.
Believing the popularity of the spiritual practice to be a threat to his power and the atheistic ideology of the CCP, then-Party leader Jiang Zemin ordered the practice to be eradicated on July 20, 1999.
Since then, millions of Chinese people have been targeted by the regime for their faith; thousands have, or face, arbitrary detention, forced re-education, torture, or have been murdered for their vital organs.
At the same time, Beijing-linked media outlets produced hundreds of hours of propaganda to defame the practice, while CCP officials pressured, and encouraged, overseas institutions and governments to tow the party line.
The trial continues.
