(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, RSF strongly protested the arrest of Bei Ling and the seizure of copies of the independent literary journal “Tendency” that he edits. The organisation also objected to the arrest of Ma Xiaoming, reporter for the public TV station in Shaanxi (north-western China), and the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, RSF strongly protested the arrest of Bei Ling and the seizure of copies of the independent literary journal “Tendency” that he edits. The organisation also objected to the arrest of Ma Xiaoming, reporter for the public TV station in Shaanxi (north-western China), and the dismissal of three journalists for the public TV station in Zuhai (southern China). Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general, advised the prime minister to “do everything in [his] power so that Bei Ling is released and ‘Tendency’ might circulate freely”. The organisation asked for sentences against the television journalists to be quashed.
According to information obtained by RSF, Bei, poet and editor of the literary journal “Tendency”, was arrested by the police on 11 August 2000 in Beijing’s university district where he planned to hold a discussion forum with writer friends to review the latest issue of his journal. Two thousand copies of the last edition of the journal were seized. Several articles had not been approved by the Chinese censorship authorities. For the past few months, the government has been running a repression campaign against “western bourgeois ideas” in the media. On 14 August, police said that Bei had been transferred to a prison in the Beijing outskirts, but gave no explanation about Bei’s arrest.
Ma Xiaoming, reporter for the public TV station in Shaanxi (north-west of the country), was arrested on 12 August after he had talked to a U.S. journalist for the “Asian Wall Street Journal”. Ma Xiaoming had been investigating the protest movement of farmers against taxes in Shaanxi county. According to Frank Lu, director of the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, based in Hong Kong, the authorities “don’t want [the conflict] disclosed,” to avoid hurting foreign investors’ confidence.
Finally, a representative of the public TV station in Zuhai (south of the country) said on 11 August that the news chief and two journalists for the station were fired for having inadvertently broadcast footage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests. On 9 July, the station covered the opening of a cable TV network in neighbouring Macau where a video was shown that included three Tiananmen scenes. For a few seconds, protesters confronting tanks could be seen in the background of the report broadcast during the TV evening news. Zuhai TV’s director and deputy director also were reprimanded. Macau has greater freedom than the rest of China, where the Tiananmen protests remain taboo.
RSF pointed out that ten journalists and “Web dissidents” are presently in jail in China.
