(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: For immediate release Paris, 20 October 1999 People’s Republic of China Since Jiang Zemin became president, 48 Chinese journalists have been jailed, and ten are still in prison Chinese president Jiang Zemin is due to arrive in Lyon, France, on Friday 22 October for a five-day […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
For immediate release
Paris, 20 October 1999
People’s Republic of China
Since Jiang Zemin became president, 48 Chinese journalists have been jailed,
and ten are still in prison
Chinese president Jiang Zemin is due to arrive in Lyon, France, on Friday 22
October for a five-day state visit during which he will meet the French
president, prime minister, speaker of parliament and the mayor of Lyon,
Raymond Barre. The visit comes just a few weeks after the 50th anniversary
of the People’s Republic of China, which was marked by a fresh wave of
repression.
Since 29 March 1993, when Jiang Zemin was appointed president of the
People’s Republic of China, 48 journalists have been jailed, most of them
after being given severe prison sentences. Police repression against
dissident journalists has even been stepped up over the past year: two
dissidents were imprisoned for making contact with pro-democracy web sites,
foreign journalists were prevented from covering ceremonies to commemorate
the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989, and some were arrested. On 22
January 1999, Jiang Zemin ordered the state-run media to “pay particular
attention to social order and political stability.” Meanwhile, legislation
was introduced to punish “anyone who deliberately publishes, prints, copies
or distributes material inciting people to overthrow the government and the
socialist system or to divide the country”. In March, the Beijing
authorities stopped issuing new publishing licences “until the second half
of the year”. A month earlier Jiang Zemin had said potential factors of
destabilisation in China should be “nipped in the bud.”
Ten Chinese journalists are in prison at the moment. One of them, Wu
Shishen, a journalist with the daily Hong Kong Express and the Xinhua news
agency, was sentenced to life imprisonment on 30 August 1993. Jiang Zemin
had personally requested a severe penalty. Wu Shishen’s “crime” was giving a
foreign correspondent a copy of a speech due to be made by the president to
the People’s Assembly a few days later.
Five of the ten journalists in jail were arrested following the
pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989: Yu Dongyue, art critic of Liuyang
News, arrested on 23 May 1989 and sentenced to 20 years in jail; Hu Liping,
a journalist with the Beijing Daily, arrested on 7 April 1990 and sentenced
to ten years; Chen Yanbin, joint editor of the underground magazine Tielu,
arrested at the end of 1990 and sentenced to 15 years; Liu Jingsheng, a
journalist with the underground journal Tansuo, arrested on 28 May 1992 and
sentenced to 15 years; and Zhang Yafei, joint editor of Tielu, arrested in
September 1990 and sentenced to 12 years. After the “Beijing Spring”, 20
Chinese journalists were imprisoned and about ten others were forced to go
into exile. A few weeks after the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jiang Zemin
publicly outlined the restrictions to be imposed on the media in future:
“From now on, our newspapers, periodicals, radio and television stations
will never again be authorised to provide space for the liberalisation of
the bourgeoisie. Sincerity of information means maintaining the party’s
ideological line.”
Since Jiang Zemin took over as head of state, 75 Chinese and foreign
journalists have been arrested. Twenty-one foreign correspondents have been
forced to leave the country, usually because they had been conducting
investigations which the government ruled were “illegal”. Prison conditions
for journalists are often extremely harsh, as the prison authorities have a
“special regime” for them. Liu Jingsheng is not allowed to receive visits
from his family. Chen Yanbin has been badly beaten by prison guards who
accused him of supporting a protest by prisoners demanding the right not to
work more than eight hours a day. No news has been available of another
journalist, Ma Tao, since October 1998, when she was scheduled for release.
Ma Tao was kept for six years at Yanqing prison, where most of the inmates
are suffering from mental illness.
As President Jiang Zemin continues his visit to Europe, Reporters Sans
Frontières calls on the French government to ask him to:
– secure the release of the ten Chinese journalists currently in jail,
including Wu Shishen, who was sentenced to life imprisonment at the specific
request of the Chinese leader,
– secure the release of two dissidents, Lin Hai and Qi Yanchen, arrested in
1999, and allow Chinese citizens free use of the internet,
– allow the Chinese media to report on the activities of dissident groups,
both in China and abroad,
– put a stop to the harassment of dissident journalists (house arrest, being
followed by the police, phone-tapping, etc.).
