David Matas' hosts shot at

Shan Ju Lin (Epoch Times)

LAST Thursday afternoon the office of the Queensland Epoch Times, which hosted David Matas' visit to Brisbane last weekend, were shot at.

Staff members believe the incident was an act of intimidation for the media organisation's hosting of the Nobel Peace Prize nominee, who spoke at a number of forums in Sunnybank and Inala on illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners.

Margaret Ramsey, Queensland spokesperson for The Epoch Times, said she and around five other staff were holding a meeting in The Epoch Times office in Sunnybank, at about 3pm, when a shot pierced a hole in the large front window, splintering the glass.

“It was big enough to make a hole in the window but because the glass was tinted, the window was shattered but did not crumble,” she said.

No-one was injured in the drive-by shooting but the incident was reported to police and an investigation is under way.

The Chinese Epoch Times is the largest Chinese language newspaper circulating in Australia.

A weekly English edition and a daily Chinese language edition are published out of Sydney, and weekly Chinese language editions are published in Brisbane and Melbourne.

Independent of any government or organisation, The Epoch Times publications are also the only Chinese language newspapers in Australia that are openly critical of the Chinese regime's treatment of its own citizens in mainland China. The publications have been at the forefront of reporting on the controversial organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China, which David Matas and David Kilgour have documented in their book Bloody Harvest.