China
2016
Chinese journalist beaten in detention, lawyer says
New York, September 1, 2016 – Chinese authorities should credibly investigate allegations that prison guards beat online journalist Lu Yuyu in custody and ensure that he gets proper medical treatment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Criticism and jokes off limits ahead of G20 summit in Hangzhou, China
The city of Yuyao, in China’s Zhejiang province, is 70 miles away from Hangzhou, where leaders of the world’s 20 leading economies will gather September 4 and 5 for the annual G20 summit. Nonetheless, on August 26, democracy activist You Jingyou and his wife were subject to extra security checks at the train station in…
As Beijing tightens grip on Hong Kong media, mainland journalists suffer
On August 1, prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Yu, who had been detained incommunicado for over a year, reemerged–with an unusual twist on an old script. Wang gave a TV interview in which she renounced her legal work and accused foreign forces of using her to “attack” and “smear” the Chinese government; the report…
China shuts down internet reporting as Xi’s sensitivity begins to resemble lèse-majesté
On July 1, popular internet portal Tencent, in its original news reporting section, published an article on a speech that President Xi Jinping gave the same day at a conference celebrating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. One line of the article read, “Xi Jinping outburst an important speech.” To…
China sentences Hong Kong publisher, editor
New York, July 26, 2016-The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the convictions and prison sentences by a mainland Chinese court of Wang Jianmin and Guo Zhongxiao, the publisher and editor, respectively, of two Hong Kong magazines, alongside an editorial assistant and the publisher’s wife.
India refuses to renew visas for three Chinese journalists
New York, July 25, 2016–Authorities in India have refused to renew the visas for three journalists from China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency. The bureau chief Wu Qiang, who is based in Delhi, and his Mumbai-based colleagues Lu Tang and She Yonggang were ordered to leave the country before their visas expire on July 31, according…
China’s information and internet controls will only tighten under Xu Lin
When the new director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, Xu Lin, issued on July 3 a warning that websites not report unverified content drawn from social media without facing possible punishment, it was clear that Beijing would move quickly beyond the Lu Wei era of information control. The announcement demanded that news websites provide…
Two Chinese writers sentenced for ‘subversion’
New York, June 16, 2016 – Chinese authorities should release Lü Gengsong and Chen Shuqing and drop all charges against them stemming from their writing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The two were individually sentenced to more than a decade in prison on “subversion” charges today, according to press reports.
In China, more journalists–even former ones–vulnerable to government wrath
Most of the journalists imprisoned in China reported or commented on issues that the Chinese government finds threatening to its rule. They were likely aware that their work could invoke the wrath of the Chinese Communist Party at any time, but still choose to go ahead for the sake of truth and the public interest.…