Japan should release journalists covering Chinese protest

New York, August 16, 2012–Japanese authorities should release two Phoenix TV journalists detained Wednesday while covering Chinese protesters landing on a disputed territory between Japan and China, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

“Japanese authorities should immediately release Jiang Xiaofeng and Leung Kam-pui along with their footage,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. “Reporting on a protest is not a crime. It’s what journalists the world over do every day.”

Reporter Jiang Xiaofeng and photographer Leung Kam-pui, both with the Chinese broadcaster Phoenix TV, were documenting protests up until they were arrested along with 12 Chinese activists on a boat beside an uninhabited islet in the East China Sea, Phoenix’s Washington DC-based commentator Haipei Shue, told CPJ. Pro-Beijing Phoenix TV, a broadcaster based in Hong Kong, has a large audience in mainland China.