April 2021: The ‘voice of the people’: Anastasia Mejía vows to keep reporting after Guatemala arrest
On August 24, 2020, Anastasia Mejía prepared herself for yet another day of reporting in Joyabaj in central Guatemala. At 49 years old, she had spent the previous 11 years covering the city’s Indigenous Maya K’iche’ community, to which she belongs. Her subject that day was a protest of mostly Maya K’iche’ merchants who wanted…
Imprisoned Uyghur journalist Erkin Tursun appears in Chinese propaganda video
Taipei, April 19, 2021 – Chinese authorities should immediately release journalist Erkin Tursun and stop using imprisoned members of the press in propaganda materials, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On April 9, at a press event in Beijing, Chinese officials aired a video of Tursun, a former TV producer who has been imprisoned…
China detains family members of Radio Free Asia Uyghur editor Eset Sulaiman
Taipei, March 8, 2021 – Chinese authorities should immediately release the relatives of journalist Eset Sulaiman, and stop intimidating members of the press abroad by targeting their family in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In a March 3 report, the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia, where Eset works as a…
CPJ joins call for Guatemalan authorities to drop criminal charges against journalist Anastasia Mejía
The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined 50 human rights organizations, media outlets, and individuals in a statement calling on Guatemalan authorities to drop all remaining charges against Indigenous radio journalist Anastasia Mejía Tiriquiz. Mejía is facing charges of sedition and aggravated attack for her alleged participation in an August 24, 2020, demonstration, according to…
Sophia Huang Xueqin
Chinese journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin has been held since September 2021 and went on trial in September 2023 for “inciting subversion of state power.” As of late 2023, she remained in custody and was awaiting a verdict in her trial. Huang is a freelance journalist who has covered social issues on her personal blog since…
Tran Khue
On October 22, 2002, the Foreign Ministry announced that writer Tran Khue, also known as Tran Van Khue, had been placed under administrative detention, or house arrest, for two years, and that his term had begun on October 9, 2001. Administrative Detention Directive 31/CP allows the government to put individuals under house arrest for two…
Lü Jiaping
Beijing police detained Lü, a military scholar in his 70s, his wife, Yu Junyi, and his colleague, Jin, on allegations of inciting subversion in 13 online articles they wrote and distributed together, according to international news reports and human rights groups. A court sentenced Lü to 10 years in prison and Jin to eight years…
Zi Beijia
Police arrested Zi after he allegedly fabricated a July 8 story about the sale of steamed buns stuffed with cardboard. Ten days after the report aired, Beijing TV apologized for the story and said that it was an invention. The Xinhua News Agency said Zi confessed, although a number of local journalists told CPJ that…
Zhang Jianhong
The founder and editor of popular news and literary Web site Aiqinhai (Aegean Sea) was taken from his home in Ningbo, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. In October, he was formally arrested on charges of “inciting subversion.” Authorities did not clarify their allegations against Zhang, but supporters believed they were linked to his online articles…
Li Jianping
Li, a writer and businessman, was detained by police in Zibo, in northeast China’s Shandong province. Initially held on suspicion of defamation for articles critical of former president Jiang Zemin and current President Hu Jintao, he was tried on more serious charges of “inciting subversion of state authority” on April 12, 2005. Before going forward…