Sentido Global: China press

SentidoNews: Global

CHINA PLANS "SMOKELESS WAR" AGAINST PRESS, DISSIDENTS
26 September 2005

In a high-level Communist party meeting, China's president Hu Jintao has reportedly called for an intensive crackdown on media liberties. While China's government has sought to project an image of a more market-oriented, open system, it continues to forbid basic press freedoms and still persecutes journalists at an alarming rate.

Reporters without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based NGO working to protect press freedom and the safety of journalists reports that China imprisons more journalists than any other nation. On 23 September RSF reported growing concern for the safety of Zhang Lin, a "cyber-dissident" imprisoned in January for "endangering national security".

Mr. Zhang launched a hunger strike on 1 September, in protest of ongoing "mistreatment" and forced labor he has undergone while in detention at Bengbu prison. According to RSF, nothing is known about him since 8 September. It is known he was taken to hospital one week into his protest but returned to prison after "refusing treatment". His wife has been barred from seeing him, because, authorities explained "all detainees must be cut off from the exterior".

In the words of the RSF report:

Zhang was convicted by a Bengbu court on 29 July for giving an interview to a foreign radio station and for posting articles and essays (including the words of a punk song) on the Internet. The court found that their content was "contrary to the bases of the constitution" and "endangered national security."

In May, China imprisoned a Hong Kong reporter writing for foreign news agencies on charges of threatening national security. The reporter Ching Cheong faces the death penalty for what amount to political charges designed to inhibit the free flow of information. [Page 2/2]