China / Asia

China’s Internet has changed fundamentally since Shi Tao was given a 10-year prison sentence in 2005. Shi’s case was a marker of sorts— the first high profile sentencing in China for online activity. The government says 40 percent of the population is online as of December 2012. That’s 564 million people. In 2005, penetration was…

New York, September 9, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the early release of journalist Shi Tao, who was first detained in 2004 and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 on charges of “leaking state secrets abroad.” Shi was released on August 23, according to an announcement on Sunday by Zhang Yu, the…

Hong Kong, August 29, 2013–Chinese authorities should release a journalist who has been jailed since Friday, after he accused an official of wrongdoing with posts on his personal microblog, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Hong Kong, August 9, 2013–The government’s anti-corruption agency has demanded two news outlets turn over notes and other material related to interviews they conducted with an oil executive who is under investigation. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Independent Commission Against Corruption to withdraw its requests.

New York, August 2, 2013–Chinese authorities should release a veteran journalist and government critic being held without charge and reverse their orders to shut down more than 100 websites, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Chinese censors have cracked down on blogger Zhu Ruifeng, an apparent signal that there are limits to the government’s tolerance for citizens assisting with the exposure of corrupt officials.On July 16, one day after the Beijing-based blogger and founder of an anti-corruption website published corruption allegations about the chief secretary of Jinjiang city in Fujian province, his…

Hong Kong, July 16, 2013–Chinese authorities must conduct an independent and thorough investigation into reports that a plainclothes police officer said to be involved in an auto accident in Kunming City, Yunnan, threatened a television journalist trying to cover the collision, and damaged the news crew’s equipment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Many international correspondents in China believe reporting conditions have worsened over the past year, according to a new survey by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China that also finds the Chinese government has “increasingly resorted to threats and intimidation against foreign media.”