(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Justice Minister Fusen Zhang, RSF protested the sentencing of Zhu Ruixiang, a lawyer and former editor of Shaoyang radio station, to three years’ imprisonment for spreading “subversive” information on the Internet. “This decision demonstrates once again the Chinese authorities’ obstinacy in attempting to muzzle free expression on the Internet,” […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Justice Minister Fusen Zhang, RSF protested the sentencing of Zhu Ruixiang, a lawyer and former editor of Shaoyang radio station, to three years’ imprisonment for spreading “subversive” information on the Internet. “This decision demonstrates once again the Chinese authorities’ obstinacy in attempting to muzzle free expression on the Internet,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. The organisation recalls that this latest sentence brings the number of jailed cyber-dissidents to nineteen.
According to information obtained by RSF, on 14 September 2001, Zhu was charged with “subversion” and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by the Shaoyang Court (Hunan Province, south-east China) after he forwarded to twelve of his friends articles from the pro-democracy online daily “VIP Reference” (www.bignews.org), which criticised the government. In his initial trial, he was sentenced to only nine months’ imprisonment, as the court deemed that his crimes were “not so serious.” But Chinese authorities ordered the court to deliver a harsher verdict. Zhu, who was an editor with Shaoyang radio station until 1988, co-founded the “Broadcasting and TV Newspaper”. He was arrested on 8 May and Shaoyang police confiscated all of his property, including his computer.
