The death of Sun Hongjie, a senior reporter at the Northern Xinjiang Morning Post, must be fully investigated by regional authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and by central authorities in Beijing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Sun died in a hospital in Kuitun today, 10 days after being beaten by several men at a construction site, international news reports said.
At least six young men attacked Sun at the Kuitin construction site, where the reporter had gone to meet a source, according to international news reports.
New York, December 10, 2010--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Chinese authorities' censorship of news reports covering today's ceremony in Oslo awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned writer Liu Xiaobo.
Local news outlets did not report on the ceremony, while international news websites including CNN and the BBC were blocked within China from Thursday, according to The New York Times. Foreign television news, which only air in select locations catering to overseas visitors, was blacked out for the duration of segments about the prize, according to international news reports.
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of Zhao Lianhai(赵连海), an activist who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in Beijing today on a charge of “inciting social unrest” for creating a website about the effects on young children of contaminated milk powder sold by the Chinese company Sanlu.
Detained since November 2009, Zhao has appealed against the verdict and has begun a hunger strike.
“The authorities are again targeting citizens who use the Internet to campaign for action that is to everyone's benefit,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is yet another dramatic illustration of a lack of humanity on the part of the Chinese authorities and how censorship can prove to be criminal. Zhao should not only be freed at once but also officially commended for his altruistic commitment.”
Zhao set up his website as a source of information for the parents of children affected by milk powder that had been adulterated with melamine, a chemical used in plastics and fertilizer, to make the milk appear to have a higher protein content. Consumption of the tainted milk caused kidney problems and in some cases kidney stones.
New York, October 8, 2010--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Chinese government to end its pointless attempts to block the news by blacking out domestic and foreign media coverage of the Norwegian Nobel Committee's announcement awarding jailed human rights activist Liu Xiaobo the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
According to foreign news agencies' reports from China, news of the award is almost non-existent in China's media and has been blacked out from international news broadcasts on the BBC and CNN.
New York, August 2, 2010—Three Uighur-language website managers were sentenced Friday to prison terms of three to 10 years after being found guilty under broad charges of “endangering state security.” The men had been jailed after ethnic rioting in July 2009 in Urumqi, capital of the far-western, predominantly Muslim, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
Nijat Azat, who managed the website Shabnam, was sentenced to a 10-year prison term; Dilixiati Paerhati, whose ran the website Diyarim, was given a five-year term; and the webmaster of Salkin, who goes by the single name Nureli, was sentenced to three years.