Three journalists in China have been given heavy prison sentences after writing about illegal land confiscation in a magazine that had no official licence in the southeastern province of Zhejiang.
"While Liu Yunshan praises his publicity department (the former propaganda department) for having closed down 79 publications last year, the jail terms imposed on these three journalists serves as a reminder that the fight against pornography and intellectual piracy is often just a pretext," Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said in a statement. "The crackdowns also target journalists whose only crime is to try to break out of the strait-jacket of political control."
Zhu Wanxiang, the editor of Zhonghua Xin Qingnian (New China Youth), and the chief editor, Wu Zhengyou, were Tuesday given jail sentences of ten and six years respectively by a court in the district of Lishui. The third journalist, identified either as Pan Chunlei or Wang Xianyong, depending on the source, was sentenced to one year in prison.
A court official told Agence France-Presse they were convicted of "illegal commercial activity, fraud and extortion." Their crime was to have reported clashes in Lishui last May involving peasants who were protesting against the confiscation of their land.
The peasants reportedly gave the newspaper 30,000 yuan (3,000 euros) in thanks for writing about their demands. The prosecutor used this as grounds to allege that the magazine had extorted the money. Zhu and Wu, who were arrested on August 20, plan to appeal.
RSF has also voiced concern about the fate of online journalist Yang Tianshui, who was arrested without a warrant by security bureau police in Nankin, in the central province of Jiangsu, on December 23 and who has been accused of "divulging state secrets." His family still dooes not know where he is being held.
Yang was arrested by a score of plainclothes security bureau policemen as he was returning home with a friend, who was subsequently freed. According to Chinese law, an arrest warrant must be produced within 24 hours of someone being detained, and one cannot keep someone in detention more than 48 hours without this document. Yang could currently be held in a hotel, a detention centre, or a prison.
It was the Zhenjiang security bureau which said Yang had been accused of "divulging state secrets" and had been banned from receiving any help from a lawyer. An official said to his lawyer he could not give any further information about the case without prior authorisation from his superiors.
"We are extremely concerned about Yang Tianshui and urge authorities to provide information on his whereabouts and the reasons for his detention," Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "We condemn the jailing of any writer for expressing opinions, an act that is protected by international and Chinese law. We call for Yang's immediate release."
According to CPJ, Yang spent 10 years in prison on "counterrevolution" charges for condemning the government's brutal military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square 1989.
In late December 2004, police seized him from his home and held him for about a month on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state authority," his former defense lawyer, Guo Guoting, told CPJ. In January 2005 he was released on bail, which is very unusual in Chinese criminal cases involving political charges, Guo said.
After his release last year, Yang continued to write for dissident news Web sites including Boxun and Epoch Times. His writings were strongly critical of authoritarian rule in China, and he advocated for the release of imprisoned Chinese writers Zhang Lin and Zheng Yichun.
As well has posting many articles on the Internet, Yang has written for the Chinese-language edition of Epoch Times, a daily newspaper produced outside of China. He has above all written about cases of torture of human rights activists and cases in which criminals have received official protection.
