Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009journalists in prison: chinaHe was sentenced to three years inprison during a brief hearing in November2009. The reason for the unusuallydrawn-out legal proceedingswas not clear. Analysts speculatedthat it indicated the weakness of thecase against Huang and disagreementamong authorities as to the severity ofthe punishment.Huang’s mother, Pu Wenqing, andwife, Zeng Li, has appealed for medicalparole for Huang, who suffers fromundisclosed ailments that began duringa previous detention, accordingto news reports. He had spent fiveyears in prison, from 2000 to 2005, oncharges of inciting subversion in articlesposted on his Web site in 2000.Du Daobin, freelanceIMPRISONED: July 21, 2008Police rearrested Du during an apparentcrackdown on dissidents prior tothe Beijing Olympics in August 2008.His defense lawyer, Mo Shaoping,told CPJ that public security officialsarrested the well-known Internetwriter at his workplace in Yingchengin the province of Hubei.Du had been serving a four-yearprobationary term, handed down bya court on June 11, 2004, for incitingsubversion of state power in articlespublished on Chinese and overseasWeb sites. The probationary termsincluded reporting monthly to authoritiesand obtaining permission totravel. Alleging that he had violatedthe conditions, police revoked Du’sprobation and jailed him, according tonews reports.Mo told CPJ in October 2008 thatthe defense team sought to challengethe police decision, but Chinese lawdoes not allow such appeals. Du wasin Hanxi Prison in Wuhan, the provincialcapital.Kunchok Tsephel Gopey TsangChomeiIMPRISONED: February 26, 2009Public security officials arrested KunchokTsephel, an online writer, in Gannan,a Tibetan Autonomous Prefecturein the south of Gansu province, accordingto Tibetan rights groups. KunchokTsephel ran the Tibetan cultural issuesWeb site Chomei, according tothe Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centrefor Human Rights and Democracy.Kate Saunders, U.K. communicationsdirector for the International Campaignfor Tibet, told CPJ by telephonefrom New Delhi that she learned of hisarrest from two sources.The detention appeared to be part ofa wave of arrests of writers and intellectualsin advance of the 50th anniversaryof the 1959 uprising preceding theDalai Lama’s departure from Tibet inMarch. The 2008 anniversary had provokedethnic rioting in Tibetan areas,and foreign reporters were barred fromthe region.In November, a Gannan court sentencedKunchok Tsephel to 15 yearsin prison for disclosing state secrets,according to The Associated Press.Kunga Tsayang (Gang-Nyi)FreelanceIMPRISONED: March 17, 2009The Public Security Bureau arrestedKunga Tsayang during a late-night raid,according to the Dharamsala-based TibetanCentre for Human Rights andDemocracy, which said it had receivedthe information from several sources.An environmental activist and photographerwho also wrote online articlesunder the pen name Gang-Nyior “Sun of Snowland,” Tsayang maintainedhis own Web site titled Zindris( Jottings) and contributed to others.He authored several essays on politicsin Tibet, including “Who Is the RealInstigator of Protests?” according toNew York-based advocacy group Studentsfor a Free Tibet.Kunga Tsayang was convicted of revealingstate secrets and sentenced inNovember to five years in prison, accordingto the center. Sentencing wasimposed during a closed court proceedingin the Tibetan area of Gannan,Gansu province.Several Tibetans, including journalists,were arrested around the March10 anniversary of the failed uprising in1959 that prompted the Dalai Lama’sdeparture from Tibet. Security measureswere heightened in the regionin the aftermath of ethnic rioting inMarch 2008.Dokru Tsultrim (Zhuori Cicheng)FreelanceIMPRISONED: April 2009A monk at Ngaba Gomang Monasteryin western Sichuan province, DokruTsultrim was arrested in early Aprilfor alleged antigovernment writingsand articles in support of the DalaiLama, according to the DharamsalabasedTibetan Centre for HumanRights and Democracy and the InternationalCampaign for Tibet.Dokru Tsultrim, originally fromQinghai province on the Tibetan plateau,also managed a private Tibetanjournal, Khawai Tsesok (Life of Snow),which ceased publication after his arrest,the center said. “Zhuori Cicheng”is the Chinese transliteration of hisname, according to Tashi ChoephelJamatsang at the center, who providedCPJ with details by e-mail.Chinese security forces detainedthe monk in his room at the monasteryshortly after the publication oftwo of his articles criticizing the Chinesegovernment’s policies in Tibet,the center said. The exact date of hisarrest was unknown. Authorities hadnot disclosed his whereabouts or legalstatus by late year.Tashi Rabten, freelanceIMPRISONED: July 26, 2009Public security officials detained TashiRabten, a student at Northwest MinoritiesUniversity in Lanzhou, whilehe was on summer break at his homein Ngaba county, Sichuan province,according to the U.S. governmentfundedRadio Free Asia (RFA) andinternational Tibetan rights groups.310311