Drazen Pantic on Fri, 27 Apr 2001 00:06:51 +0200 (CEST) |
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[Nettime-bold] China alert (wave of repression against web dissidents)] |
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community _________________________________________________________________ ALERT - CHINA 26 April 2001 Wave of repression against web dissidents SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris (RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to Jia Chunwang, Chinese minister of public security, RSF protested the arrest of Lu Xinhua and Guo Qinghai. Both are accused of violating the law on the content of information published on the Internet. RSF asked the minister to guarantee the release of Lu and Guo, and for the charges against them to be dropped. "We see the disastrous consequences of the Internet laws promulgated in 2000 by the Chinese authorities. The police services in charge of the Internet are now tracking down all web dissidents," noted RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. According to information collected by RSF, Lu was detained on 11 March 2001 in Wuhan (central China). According to the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, he was formally arrested on 20 April for "subversion". Lu is the author of several articles published on overseas websites. He has reported on human rights violations in China and openly criticised Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Guo, a bank employee, has been on trial since 3 April in a Hebei (northern China) court, for violating the law on the content of news published on the Internet. His family was not informed of the date of the trial. He wrote pro-democracy articles on an American web site. In a report entitled "Enemies of the Internet" (www.rsf.org) published in February, RSF wrote: "Over the past two years, the Chinese authorities have considerably changed their policy for controlling the Internet. The 'Great Cyber Wall' strategy, implemented in 1997 by the Ministry of Public Security and the State Prosecutor, was abandoned in favour of selective enforcement and control carried out by ISPs and site managers themselves. ...Chinese web dissidents are considered to be real criminals, and run the risk of hefty prison sentences." Four web dissidents are currently jailed in China: Qi Yanchen, chief editor of the online magazine "Consultations", arrested on 2 September 1999 and sentenced to four years in jail (see IFEX alerts of 21 September, 13 July, 26 and 5 June, 17 and 3 March and 26 January 2000 and 3 September 1999); Huang Qi, creator of the website www.6-4tianwang.com, detained since 3 June 2000, whose trial was postponed (see alerts of 9 February and 18 January 2001, 13 July, 26 and 7 June 2000); Jiang Shihua, teacher and owner of Silicon Valley Internet Cafe, jailed since 16 August 2000 and sentenced last December to two years in jail (see alerts of 14 March 2001 and 22 August 2000); and Yang Zili, creator of the website www.lib.126.com, whose family has not been informed of his whereabouts since he was detained by the police on 13 March (see alert of 20 April 2001). For further information, contact Vincent Brossel at RSF, 5, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: asie@rsf.fr, Internet: http://www.rsf.fr The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit RSF. _________________________________________________________________ DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE 489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879 alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/ _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold