Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009asia: chinaCHINAWhile china’s ruling communist party celebrated 60 yearsin power in 2009, its critics commemorated antigovernment movements in Tibetin 1949 and Tiananmen Square in 1989. Government agencies used a securityapparatus strengthened for the 2008 Olympics to restrict dissenting voices duringall three landmark anniversaries.Foreign journalists were the main beneficiaries of media reforms undertakenin the run-up to the Olympics. Yet compliance with liberalized rules allowing internationaljournalists to travel and conduct interviews without government permissionremained patchy in early 2009. In March, international journalists wererefused access to the Tibetan Autonomous Region and expelled from Tibetanareas of western China to prevent reporting on the first anniversary of riotingbetween minority Tibetans and Han Chinese, which coincided with the 50thanniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising. Police harassed reporters in Sichuanone year after the May 2008 earthquake. On June 4, 20 years after troops fired onantigovernment protesters in Beijing, journalists with the BBC and CNN reportingfrom the focal point of the student-led unrest, Tiananmen Square, found policeobstructing their camera lenses with open umbrellas.Mid-year brought apparent changes in government tactics. Rumors of strife betweenHan Chinese and minority Uighur workers at a factory in southern Guangzhouprovince sparked riots in the far-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regionon July 5. This time, information authorities welcomed international correspondentsto the regional capital, Urumqi, to cover the disturbance. The state-run news agency,Xinhua, which notoriously excludes antigovernment movements from coverage, reporteda death toll of nearly 200. Foreign news outlets praised the unusual openness.Out of the spotlight, however, restrictions continued. The Guangzhou factory, siteof the original tension, was off-limits to foreign reporters, as were other Xinjiang hotspots such as the city of Kashgar, the site of violence in 2008.Journalists from the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macauwere freer than their mainland counterparts but still encountered obstruction. InFebruary, China announced onerous requirements for these journalists enteringthe mainland, including the need to get permission from interviewees in advanceof travel. Hong Kong and Macau journalists feared regulation from afar but wereequally concerned at signs of local self-censorship. Reporter Daisy Chu told CPJshe lost her job at Esquire magazine’s Hong Kong edition after revealing on herpersonal blog that editors had withdrawn a feature on the Tiananmen anniversary.Esquire did not respond to CPJ inquiries. Mak Yinting, chairwoman of theHong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), expressed concern that the dismissalimplied that June 4 was off-limits to Hong Kong reporters.The HKJA asserted itself against the mainland in early September, leadingstreet protests after police roughed up and detained at least three Hong Kongjournalists on assignment in Urumqi. Press officials in Xinjiang defended the action,saying the journalists had been inciting unrest, according to HKJA. MainlandChinese journalists could not mount their own displays of protest withoutfear of reprisal, although local newspapers reported that they were menacedand assaulted by police, security agents, and citizens in the course of their workthroughout the year. Guangzhou Ribao daily said three of its journalists were attackedon the job in separate episodes in August. One, reporter Liu Manyuan,was hospitalized after being assaulted by district security guards in DongguanCity while investigating the death of a young woman, the paper said.Progress for foreign journalists was offset by tighter restrictions on their interviewsubjects and Chinese assistants. In February 2009, the Ministry of ForeignAffairs-linked Beijing Personnel Service Corporation for Diplomatic Missionsissued a code of conduct for Chinese aides of foreign news outlets. Alreadyforbidden by law from writing under their own bylines, Chinese assistants—whocan find legal employment with foreign news providers only through the personnelservice—faced dismissal or loss of accreditation for conducting independentinterviews, the new code decreed.Foreign journalists investigating potentially critical stories told CPJ they wereincreasingly anxious about repercussions for local colleagues and sources. SeveralTibetans and Uighurs who spoke openly about minority issues in their respectiveregions were detained in 2009, lending weight to those concerns. At least three Tibetanwriters were arrested between February and July. Overseas Tibetan rightsgroups reported in November that two had been separately tried and sentenced inclosed-door proceedings in Gansu province, both for revealing state secrets. KunchokTsephel Gopey Tsang, manager of the Tibetan cultural Web site Chomei, wasjailed for 15 years, while environmental activist and writer Kunga Tsayang wassentenced to five years in prison.t o p developments»»More access for foreign reporters,tighter rules for local assistants.»»As online use grows, governmentcensors sites, jails critics.24key statisticJournalists jailed as ofDecember 1, 2009.Tibetan rights organizations saidDokru Tsultrim, a monk who wroteseveral articles in support of the DalaiLama, remained in custody at theend of the year, but his location andlegal status were not known.Uighur Web site managers werealso targeted. Dilimulati Paerhati, aU.K.-based student, told AmnestyInternational that unidentified mentook his brother, Dilixiati Paerhati,122123