(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Public Security Minister Jia Chunwang, RSF protested the sentence handed down to journalist and dissident Liu Haofeng, to three years in a labour camp. RSF asked the minister to release the journalist. “Once again a journalist is secretly sentenced to a harsh punishment. The Chinese government is demonstrating that […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Public Security Minister Jia Chunwang, RSF protested the sentence handed down to journalist and dissident Liu Haofeng, to three years in a labour camp. RSF asked the minister to release the journalist. “Once again a journalist is secretly sentenced to a harsh punishment. The Chinese government is demonstrating that it is not prepared to respect its international commitments,” affirmed RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. RSF also expressed its concern after the adoption of a new rule called the “Seven Nos”, of which the goal is to increase state control over the media. “This rule could result in the arrest of journalists who try to report on corruption or other spectacular and sensitive subjects, or criticise the Communist Party,” said Ménard.
According to the information released on 24 August 2001 by the dissident organisation Free China Movement, based in the United States, journalist and dissident Liu was secretly sentenced last May to three years in a labour camp in Shanghai (capital of East China). Liu, a reporter at the “China Market Economy Newspaper”, published in Beijing, disappeared in March while he was doing research for the banned Chinese Democrat Party. According to Free China Movement, which kept documents attesting to Liu’s sentence, the journalist was tried for having published articles in support of democracy, notably on websites. He also tried to build Chinese Democrat Party groups. Aged 28, Liu also participated in the Univillage project created in December 1999 to promote local democracy and rural development in China. This Chinese association’s website indicates that Liu was a member of the Univillage team. Yang Zili, a cyber dissident detained since 13 March, also participated (see IFEX alerts of 24 and 15 May and 20 April 2001). Solicited by international press agencies, the authorities refused to make any comments about Liu’s sentence.
