Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009journalists in prison: chinaXu was also the co-founder of aHong Kong-based academic journal,Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Jikan(China Social Sciences Quarterly).The “economic crimes” chargeswere related to the “illegal publication”of more than 60,000 copies of25 books and periodicals, includingseveral books about Chinese politicsand Beijing’s relations with Taiwan.He was arrested just days before anarticle appeared in the June 26, 2000, issueof Yazhou Zhoukan, in which he accusedthe Communist Party of hypocrisywhen it condemned countries thatcriticized China’s human rights record.Xu began his sentence in DongguanPrison, outside of Guangzhou, but waslater transferred to Guangzhou Prison,where it was easier for his family to visithim. He was spared from hard laborand was allowed to read, research, andteach English in prison, according tothe U.S.-based prisoner advocacy groupDui Hua Foundation. He suffered fromhigh blood pressure and diabetes.In 2006, Xu’s family members wereinformed that he had received a ninemonthreduction in his sentence, accordingto Dui Hua. He was givenanother 10-month reduction in April,and is scheduled for release in 2011,the group reported.Jin Haike, freelanceXu Wei, freelanceIMPRISONED: March 13, 2001Jin and Xu were among four membersof an informal discussion group calledXin Qingnian Xuehui (New YouthStudy Group) who were detained andaccused of “subverting state authority.”Prosecutors cited online articles andessays on political and social reform asproof of their intent to overthrow theCommunist Party leadership.The two men, along with their colleagues,Yang Zili and Zhang Honghai,were charged with subversion on April20, 2001. More than two years later,on May 29, 2003, the Beijing No. 1Intermediate People’s Court sentencedJin and Xu each to 10 years in prison,while Yang and Zhang each receivedsentences of eight years. All of the sentenceswere to be followed by two years’deprivation of political rights.The four young men were studentsand recent university graduates whogathered occasionally to discuss politicsand reform with four others, includingan informant for the Ministry of StateSecurity. The most prominent in thegroup, Yang, posted his own thoughts,as well as reports by the others, on topicssuch as rural poverty and villageelections, along with essays advocatingdemocratic reform, on the popular Website Yangzi de Sixiang Jiayuan (Yangzi’sGarden of Ideas). Xu was a reporterat Xiaofei Ribao (Consumer’s Daily).Public security agents pressured thenewspaper to fire him before his arrest,a friend, Wang Ying, reported online.The court cited a handful of articles,including Jin’s “Be a New Citizen, ReformChina” and Yang’s “Choose Liberalism,”in the 2003 verdict against them.The Beijing High People’s Court re-jected their appeal without hearing defensewitnesses. Three of the witnesseswho testified against the four men werefellow members of the group and latertried to retract their testimonies.Yang and Zhang were released onthe expiration of their sentences onMarch 13, 2009, according to internationalnews reports. Xu and Jinremained imprisoned at Beijing’s No.2 Prison. Jin’s father told CPJ in Octoberthat his son was suffering fromabdominal pain, for which he had undergonesurgery in 2007. Xu was sufferingfrom psychological stress whilein prison, according to the IndependentChinese PEN Center.Abdulghani Memetemin, freelanceIMPRISONED: July 26, 2002Memetemin, a writer, teacher, andtranslator who had actively advocatedfor the Uighur ethnic group in thenorthwestern Xinjiang Uighur AutonomousRegion, was detained inKashgar, Xinjiang province, on chargesof “leaking state secrets.”In June 2003, the Kashgar IntermediatePeople’s Court sentenced Memeteminto nine years in prison, plusa three-year suspension of politicalrights. Radio Free Asia provided CPJwith court documents listing 18 specificcounts against him, which includedtranslating state news articles into Chinesefrom Uighur; forwarding officialspeeches to the Germany-based EastTurkistan Information Center (ETIC),a news outlet that advocates for an in-dependent state for the Uighur ethnicgroup; and conducting original reportingfor ETIC. The court also accusedhim of recruiting reporters for ETIC,which is banned in China.Memetemin did not have legal representationat his trial.Huang Jinqiu (Qing Shuijun,Huang Jin), freelanceIMPRISONED: September 13, 2003Huang, a columnist for the U.S.-basedWeb site Boxun News, was arrestedin Jiangsu province, and his familywas not notified of his arrest for morethan three months. On September 27,2004, the Changzhou IntermediatePeople’s Court sentenced him to 12years in prison on charges of “subversionof state authority,” plus four years’deprivation of political rights. Thesentence was unusually harsh and appearedlinked to his intention to forman opposition party.Huang worked as a writer and editorin his native Shandong province, as wellas in Guangdong province, before leavingChina in 2000 to study journalism atthe Central Academy of Art in Malaysia.While he was overseas, he began writingpolitical commentary for BoxunNews under the pen name Qing Shuijun.He also wrote articles on arts and entertainmentunder the name Huang Jin.Huang’s writings reportedly caught theattention of the government in 2001. Hetold a friend that authorities had contactedhis family to warn them about hiswritings, according to Boxun News.2982 9 9