Tibet (China)

Two Tibetan writers were released after completing four-year jail terms. They were contributors to a magazine consisting of essays that criticised human rights abuses against Tibetans and questioned official media accounts of the March 2008 unrest in Tibet.

Tibetan documentary filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen, who was jailed in 2008, has been released but faces an unspecified term of deprivation of political rights.

Jigme Gyatso, a Tibetan monk who disappeared nearly two years ago in Tibet, has resurfaced safe and sound in the northern Indian city Dharamsala. There had been no news of Gyatso – who helped Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen to secretly film the documentary “Leaving Fear Behind” in 2008 – since his arbitrary arrest by the Chinese authorities in September 2012.

The Board of Norwegian PEN strongly urges the Norwegian government to meet with the Dalai Lama during his visit to the country in May, and to not set business interests ahead of human rights.

PEN International welcomes the 29 March 2014 release of Tibetan writer and editor Tashi Rabten (pen-name Te’urang) who had been serving a four-year prison sentence in connection with his critical writings.

While Tibetans face fierce Internet restrictions, Chinese tourists appear to be breaching “the great Firewall of China” by sharing holiday snaps with friends back home.

The Chinese authorities have stepped up their persecution of independent Tibetan news providers in recent weeks, arresting three writers who are frequent information sources for external observers.

The Chinese government, under the rationale of a campaign to improve rural living standards, has sent more than 20,000 officials and communist party cadres to Tibetan villages to undertake intrusive surveillance of people, carry out widespread political re-education, and establish partisan security units.

Chinese diplomatic personnel have been harassing and threatening French journalist Cyril Payen, a reporter for the French TV news station France 24, since the station broadcast his documentary “Seven days in Tibet” on 30 May.

The Chinese government’s announcement that it will expand a new security system throughout Tibet despite an already heavy security presence and little evidence of violent threats to the state raises grave concerns about threats to human rights.

A Chinese court sentenced Tibetan monk Lorang Konchok to death with two years’ reprieve and his nephew, Lorang Tsering, to 10 years in prison on charges of “intentional homicide” in connection with the self-immolation protests of other Tibetans.

Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen has reportedly been moved to a women’s prison where conditions are not as harsh. However, there is no new information about Jigme Gyatso, a Buddhist monk who assisted Wangchen on a documentary and who has been arrested several times.

There is concern about three Tibetan monks of whom there has been no news since their arrest in early December 2012 for sharing information about a student demonstration.

Chinese authorities have issued an arrest order for Jigme Gyatso, a missing monk who helped film a 2008 documentary about life in Tibet.

In response to an increase in self-immolations by Tibetans, Chinese authorities have employed forms of collective punishment to discourage these acts and arrested people who helped immolators plan or carry out their protests.

Help the Committee to Protect Journalists reach 10,000 signatories on its petition calling on the Chinese president to immediately release Dhondup Wangchen, unjustly serving six years in prison.