CPJ is honored to present its 2025 International Press Freedom Award to Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu.
Veteran Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu is serving a seven-year sentence on espionage charges after he was arrested while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat in 2022. He was convicted by a Beijing court in November 2024 and filed an appeal the following month. As of September 2025, Dong’s appeal was still pending at the Beijing High Court — an unusually long delay.
A long-time editor and columnist whose work is well known within China and beyond, Dong, 63, began working as a columnist for the state-run Guangming Daily in 1987. His writing is widely perceived as advocating for progressive reform in China, including support for the rule of law and constitutional democracy. Dong has also written for The New York Times’s Chinese-language website.
Dong’s imprisonment underscores the growing trend of using espionage and national security charges to target journalists in China. Dong’s indictment, based on his meetings with foreign diplomats, is a flagrant violation of press freedom, and undermines China’s stated goal of promoting people-to-people diplomacy. Dong’s detention, two months before he was due to retire, highlights the arbitrary way in which Chinese journalists are targeted in the country. China is the world’s leading jailer of journalists, with at least 50 behind bars in CPJ’s latest annual prison census on December 1, 2024. CPJ is advocating for Dong’s release.