BEIJING (AP)--A day after the Wall Street Journal received a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on China's often brutal effort to stamp out the Falun Gong spiritual movement, China called on foreign reporters Thursday to publicize its claim that the group is an "anti-humanity" cult. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue defended the crackdown and, without mentioning the Journal or its prize, complained about news reports focusing on abuses that China says have not occurred. "Falun Gong is an anti-humanity, anti-society, anti-science cult," Zhang said at a routine ministry news briefing. "It is our hope that foreign correspondents in China make more coverage on that instead of making irresponsible conclusions or irresponsible reports on this question." Articles by Journal reporter Ian Johnson that received the most prestigious U.S. journalism award cited numerous allegations of torture and killings of sect members in police custody - something that China says does not happen. The Wall Street Journal and its various editions are wholly owned by Dow Jones & Co. (DJ), which also publishes this and other newswires, as well as Barron's, The Far Eastern Economic Review and other magazines. Dow Jones owns 50% of CNBC financial television operations in Asia and Europe and provides content to CNBC in the U.S. Falun Gong attracted millions of members during the 1990s with a mix of spirituality, meditation and exercise. Fearing the group could challenge communist rule, the government banned it in July 1999. Police efforts to discourage hardcore members from protesting the ban have caused the deaths of scores of practitioners, human rights groups say. The United States has cited repression against Falun Gong in a proposed resolution condemning China's human rights record to be voted on this week at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.