Ignorance and prejudice – my interview with an ABC journalist

I reminded ABC journalist Hagar numerous times that when using a Chinese community group for an attack on Donald Trump, one must first get to know the Chinese speaking community better to understand the proportion of Chinese support for Trump and the proportion of Chinese support for protests in the US.

Hagar looked to be a very capable journalist. She is one of the co-editors on the program targeting FLG.

A few days ago, I accepted Hagar’s invitation to interview me in my capacity as the chief editor of Vision Times Media Australia.

Due to growing up under different environments, we have very different political assessments. If a journalist does not have a deep understanding of the Chinese people, and use their presumptions to judge the actions of the Chinese, the result is the constant application of “bizarre” logic. And if the journalist herself already has preconceived prejudices, then the conversation will be in absolute discord.

During this interview, I felt that Ms Hagar’s prejudices and arbitrary presumptions as well as her purposeful steering of public discourse constituted a threat to the Chinese-speaking community.

I am unsure if Ms Hagar’s opinions reflect the wider Australian public or not. She believes it is mainstream to support anti-government or anti-political party movements, yet if any groups or individuals support a certain government or political party, then that would be classified as a political action. And if this individual or group is operating a media or a company, then the media must have been established for political purposes.

This logic is quite bizarre if used on parts of the Chinese diaspora who had no choice but to escape to a foreign country to avoid persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The FLG group, like many of the Chinese escapees don’t care much for Western politics. However, they have a fervent wish that Western leaders will place pressure on the CCP so that they can save their Chinese counterparts and relatives in China and earn some basic human rights. Precisely due to this, some ABC journalists are using political reasons to target this group for such “outrageous” behaviour.

Ms Hagar seemed very innocent and naive in her questions but from my point of view, that naivety was a necessary front.

During the interview, Hagar was very straight forward and said she is currently working on the final episode of the “FLG program” and wishes to investigate whether “Vision Times Australia” is an independent media, in other words whether it is “FLG media”.

I told her that judgement of whether a media is an “independent media” or “religious media” should be based on certain assessment criteria. If you investigate according to these criteria, then it is easy to reach your conclusion.

 Everyone knows about FLG’s anti-persecution movements. As Chinese-language media, we will fully support FLG’s call to end persecution as long as it does not infringe upon our media company’s independence. That is a moral obligation. I told Ms Hagar, from a social level, Chinese-language media is like a “Kongfu Master” and will usually pay most attention to the grassroots community and speak out for those who have been wronged. Our media has not only received the support of FLG practitioners, but also the support of all other groups who have escaped CCP persecution. However financially or operationally, our media have no connections to the FLG group or any other groups. Even the board of directors cannot interfere with the editorial team.

Therefore, it is obvious “Vision Times Media Australia” does not belong to FLG.

ABC views Trump as their “number one enemy”. These journalists have made the presumption that the entire FLG group are supporters of Trump, therefore have used all broadcasting channels to hit back. Serving their own political motive, they have used taxpayers’ money, including my money, to target a law abiding religious cultivation group; from this action, I perceive the ABC as not only a political media but a very immoral media. I told her, apart from those Chinese-language media controlled by the CCP, no other Chinese-language media would do something like this.

Hagar obviously was dissatisfied with my answers. She took out a document which listed my entire personal information, including my real name, date of birth, home address, my previous places of work and work details, as well as personal private companies under my name. She wanted me to present evidence to show everything in there has no financial connections to FLG. This truly scared me. I felt that I was not facing a journalist.

She is adamant that “Vision Times Media Australia” has very close connections with FLG and as chief editor, everything in my life must exist for FLG, unless I have evidence to prove otherwise.

I suddenly had a sense of déjà vu that this person questioning me is almost like someone sent by the CCP. Her questioning logic is exactly the same as a CCP official. Instead of finding evidence from a media’s internal controls and systems to confirm a media’s independence, she has been doing extensive background checks into my private life. This was beyond my expectations.

Afterwards, she sent an email with a long list of questions which included many purely personal questions.

In my reply, I asked her to first answer four questions from me, and then we can continue our conversation. There were two questions which she refused to answer:

   1) For someone who has a faith, does his job have to serve that particular faith? (yes or no?)

   2) Do you have a faith? (yes or no). If yes, what is the connection between your faith and your job as a journalist?

She knew this type of logical reasoning cannot be proven true in any industry in society. Yet she is trying to use this reasoning on her targets.

During the interview, Ms Hagar denied that she “discriminates FLG” or “hates Trump” but her program and interview questions continued to show her hostility towards the FLG group and Trump. She gave me a sense that there will be unspeakable consequences if I dared to support FLG or Trump.

This sense did not just come from her language but also from her actions. Ms Hagar actively investigated which academics supported the FLG group. She also sent questions to associations that staff members from “Vision Times Media Australia” participated in, adding pressure to the head of the association and attempted to stir up discrimination towards “Vision Times Media Australia” on all fronts.

During the interview, I mentioned many times that the ABC FLG program was quite unbelievable and can almost be seen ascorroborating with the CCP to persecute human rights. Needless to say she was quite upset at my comments. However, in reality, Ms Hagar’s actions have far exceeded this kind of corroboration. It can almost be seen asinadvertently serving the CCP.

Finally, I reminded her that many in the Chinese-speaking community have experienced the horrific Cultural Revolution. Most Chinese do not wish to live in an unstable society because whenever there is instability, the Chinese always gets impacted the most. The ABC program is not only targeting FLG, but also making the entire Chinese-speaking community feel unsafe. Through public discourse, this program is attempting to influence Chinese people’s thoughts and political inclination. A national broadcaster has almost achieved the effects of the CCTV.

I have previously published many articles refuting that “racial discrimination” towards Chinese-Australians is a mainstream phenomenon because most large scale “racial discrimination” need to be driven by government and mainstream media. However, today, I have started to doubt my judgements. I can now see the start of racial discrimination in Australia's mainstream media.

When Australia’s National Broadcaster ABC singles outand uses a FLG group to hit out at Trump, it is time the entire Chinese community pay attention. Do not think this has nothing to do with you.

 1-8-2020