Thursday, July 24, 2008

China Clamps Down on Journalists Ahead of the Olympics

Reporters Without Borders reports a number of arrests of Chinese journalists in recent weeks:

  • Cyber Journalist Huang Qi and several associates have been held for more than a month in Chengdu, without access to lawyers or outside contact. The arrests follow criticism on his website 64Tianwang of corruption in the allocation of money following the May 12th earthquake.

  • Chen Xi, Liao Shuangyuan and Wu Yuqin were arrested on 8 July for investigating the death of a teenage girl in suspicious circumstances in the district of Wengan (in Guizhou province). The articles are part of a larger public campaign - most dramatically in a public demonstration by thousands of local people outside the local Public Security Bureau on June 28. The three activists have since been placed under house arrest.

  • Human rights activist Yuan Xianchen has been detained since 28 May for his part in collecting signatures for the “We want human rights not Olympic Games” petition

  • Police confiscated a camera and memory card from reporter Chen Yang of Hong Kong on 11 July in Beijing. At the time, she was taking photos of small investors protesting against the alleged embezzlement of 170 million Chinese yuan by China Commodity Spot Exchange President Guo Yuanfeng.






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1 comment:

kimbatch said...

Is anyone going to hold China to account on the promises it made that hosting the Olympics would improve human rights in China?

Show your solidarity for Chinese bloggers who risk censure, arrest, torture and even imprisonment for peacefully expressing speaking out online.

Join Amnesty International’s online Day of Protest. Check it out - http://action.uncensor.com.au/dop/

Internet censorship helps the Chinese authorities to hide human rights abuses - like how much they use of the death penalty, torture and their persecution of human rights defenders.