Downer backs down over Falun Gong
By Mike Steketee | NEWS.com.au (Australia)
(from: The Australian)
April 4, 2006
THE Falun Gong movement has won two victories against moves by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to curb their activities.
In response to court action against him, Mr Downer has agreed to stop signing certificates which ban Falun Gong protesters outside the Chinese Embassy in Canberra from displaying fixed banners and making excessive noise, actions he claimed impaired the dignity of the embassy.
In a separate action, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has recommended that Mr Downer apologise in writing for breaching the rights to freedom of expression of Falun Gong representative Daniel Clark after he and a colleague were excluded from human rights talks with Australian government officials.
The outcomes are embarrassing for Mr Downer, who was criticised by Falun Gong for going further than any other Western country in bowing to Chinese demands to act against the group.
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