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Line 19: The '''Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident''' took place in the historic and iconic [[Tiananmen Square]] in central Beijing, on the eve of [[Chinese New Year]] on 23 January 2001. The incident is disputed: the official Chinese Communist Party state run press agency, [[Xinhua News Agency]] reported that five members of [[Falun Gong]], a banned but popular [[qigong]] movement based on [[meditation]], which is also known as "Falun Dafa", set themselves on fire in protest. A week later, the Chinese government television station, [[China Central Television]] (CCTV), broadcast a program showing a video of the incident; the number of victims was increased from five to seven. The Falun Dafa Information Center denied that the [[Self-immolation|self-immolators]] were practitioners, on the grounds that the movement's teachings explicitly forbid killing and view suicide as a sin and that victims self-immolators where not known as having practiced Falun Gong.<ref name="FDI_PressRelease"/>. The claims of the Falun Dafa information Center were supported by the investigation of Washington Post reporter, Philip Pan, who days after the incident, traveled to the hometown of two of the alleged self-immolators to investigate, finding no one had ever seen them practice Falun Gong. The Falun Dafa Information Center alledged that the incident was staged and [[New Tang Dynasty Television|Falun Gong-affiliated TV company]] published a program, ''False Fire''.<ref name="FalseFire_video"/> . deconstructing the [[China Central Television|CCTV]] video footage of the self-immolation incident. The five people were part of a group of seven who had travelled to the square together. One of them, Liu Chunling, later identified as a prostitute by Washington Post reporter Philip P. Pan{{citation needed}}, died at Tiananmen and another, her 12-year-old daughter, Liu Siying, died in hospital several weeks after; three survived. A CNN crew present at the scene witnessed the five setting themselves ablaze and had just started filming when police intervened and detained the crew.<ref name=tense/> The incident received international news coverage, and video footage was extensively and repeatedly broadcast throughout the People's Republic of China by [[China Central Television]] (CCTV), which showed images of Liu Siying burning and interviews with the others in which they stated their belief that self-immolation would lead them to paradise.<ref name=oneway/> The video was questioned by a [[New Tang Dynasty Television|Falun Gong-affiliated TV company]] in their own program, ''False Fire''.<ref name="FalseFire_video"/> The Falun Dafa Information Center, along with ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine reported that the Chinese government's media campaign against Falun Gong gained significant traction following the act.<ref name=breakingpoint/> Posters, leaflets and videos were produced, detailing the supposed detrimental effects of Falun Gong; the authorities ordered regular anti-Falun Gong classes to be scheduled in schools to highlight the dangers of the practice.<ref name=oneway/><ref name=dangerous>{{cite book |first=Mickey |last=Spiegel |url=http://hrw.org/reports/2002/china/ |title=Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falungong |publisher=Human Rights Watch |year=2002 |isbn=1-56432-270-X|accessdate=28 September 2007}}</ref><ref name=chrandra>{{cite web |first=Chrandra D. |last=Smith |url=http://org.law.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/new_devs/RJLR_ND_66.pdf |title=Chinese Persecution of Falun Gong |publisher=Rutgers School of Law |work=Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion |date=October 2004 |accessdate= 28 September 2009}}</ref> [[Human Rights Watch]] (HRW) believed the incident was among one of the most difficult stories for reporters in Beijing at the time to report on because of a lack of independent information available.<ref name=hrw-chn43081/> ''Time'' magazine and Professor David Ownby of the [[University of Montreal]]<ref>Professor David Ownby is Director of Center for East Asian Studies, University of Montreal</ref> remarked it was possible for misguided practitioners to have taken it upon themselves to demonstrate in this manner.<ref name=breakingpoint/><ref name=ownbyfalungong218/> Barend ter Haar, sinologist at [[Leiden University]]<ref>[http://www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/chinees/organisatie/medewerkers-alfabetisch/haarbjter.html Barend ter Haar], Chair of Chinese History at Leiden University (Sinological Institute) Retrieved 29 September 2009</ref> and Francesco Sisci, Asia editor of ''[[La Stampa]]'', believe the event was an authentic protest by practitioners, but that the Chinese government's botched handling of it made it look like state propaganda.<ref name="Haar"/><ref name=sisci/> | |||