Canada’s TV censor has ruled that a Chinese Central Television report on a multiple-murder case that was rebroadcast on a Chinese- language Canadian specialty TV channel breached industry codes on violence and ethics.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said Friday that the Dec. 16 rebroadcast of the CCTV report on Talentvision TV, the Chinese-language specialty channel, breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ codes of ethics and violence and the Radio-Television News Directors Association of Canada’s code of (journalistic) ethics.

The offending CCTV news rebroadcast, outlined in the CBSC’s report, repeatedly displayed a blood-soaked crime scene and concerned a man with apparent ties to the controversial Falun Gong sect who confessed to killing his family in mainland China. The CBSC national specialty services panel, responding to complaints from Falun Gong sympathizers in Canada, expressed no view on the Chinese government’s criticism and alleged persecution of the Falun Gong and insisted it was ruling on the TV news report itself.

The CBSC found the CCTV report’s characterization of the Falun Gong as an “evil cult” to be, in the words of the panel, “unfair and improper” and in breach of the industry ethic codes.

The panel also took exception to the news report persistently tying the defendant to the Falun Gong and its activities and also cast doubt on his apparent TV confession. (The CBSC did not have further details on terms of the man’s sentence.)

“There was not any justification to identify him and his criminal act so constantly as Falun Gong-related,” the CBSC said in its ruling. “It must also be admitted that it would be most unusual, in a North American judicial environment, to have an accused making such confessions in a television interview as Fu Yi-bin made on this news segment.”

At one point, the CCTV report contained, according to the Talentvision translation, a voice-over uttering: “According to investigation, the suspect, Fu Yi-bin, was a caring and loving son and husband. All that changed when he started practicing Falun Gong in 1998.

“After indulging in, being influenced through and spiritually controlled by Li Hong-zhi and the Falun Gong evil cult organization, he marched toward the edge of criminality until he became so utterly inhumane as to murder his father and wife,” the CCTV report added.

The CBSC said the Chinese TV report represented an undue “biased” attack on the Falun Gong.

The Canadian censors reserved their strongest judgment for the CCTV report’s scenes of the blood-soaked apartment where the alleged murders took place, insisting that this breached the CAB violence code.

“In the case at hand, there are no fewer than four separate video clips of the blood-soaked apartment. In the view of the panel, the point about the particularly gruesome nature of the family murders was achieved by the use of the clip once,” the ruling said. “The additional airings were excessive and constituted inappropriate repetition of violent footage in a news report.”

Talentvision, in a written defense of its program to the Canadian Falun Gong complainants, said part of its mandate was to supply news from mainland China to its Mandarin-speaking Canadian audience.

As well, Talentvision held that CCTV, despite being state-owned, should be considered a “legitimate news source.”

“Talentvision will not knowingly act as a propaganda agent for anyone and believes very strongly in human rights and the freedom of the press,” the station said.

Having breached voluntary industry codes, Talentvision will have to announce the CBSC decision on air during primetime within 30 days, ensuring that the decision is translated into Mandarin.