**Updates IFEX CH alerts dated 6, 5 October, 1 April, 4 March 1994, and 14 September 1993** Wei Jingsheng, the detained journalist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who RSF deems a “plaything of a repressive regime,” has been kept in detention since April 1994. On 16 March 1995, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang said […]
**Updates IFEX CH alerts dated 6, 5 October, 1 April,
4 March 1994, and 14 September 1993**
Wei Jingsheng, the detained journalist and Nobel Peace Prize
nominee who RSF deems a “plaything of a repressive regime,” has
been kept in detention since April 1994. On 16 March 1995,
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang said that “Wei
Jingsheng is a criminal. He has no qualification whatsoever to be
nominated as a candidate for the so-called Nobel Peace Prize.”
This followed an announcement by United States congressmen that
they had nominated the dissident journalist for the 1995 Nobel
Peace Prize for his fight for human rights and democracy since
1978. According to the Norwegian media, members of the Danish
legislature had also nominated Wei Jingsheng in January.
Wei Jingsheng remains in detention and his whereabouts are
unknown. In the 16 March press conference, Shen Guofang
reportedly said that he had “no knowledge of [Wei Jingsheng’s]
whereabouts” because the journalist’s detention was a concern of
judicial officials, not of the Foreign Ministry.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to Chinese authorities:
doing so, clarify the charges brought against him
Jingsheng in 1979 should have ended on 29 March 1994, and that,
thus, the legal constraints tied to his release on parole handed
out on 15 September 1993 are no longer relevant
Jingsheng
date of 29 March 1997 and that any legal constraints be cancelled
