Uighur journalist goes on trial in China a year after unrest
New York, July 22, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Chinese government to dismiss charges against Gheyret Niyaz, a Uighur journalist and website manager, and release him from prison. According to the Uyghur American Association (UAA), Niyazi will be tried in Urumqi, the capital of China’s far-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on July 28.
Feng Zhenghu home safe after Kafkaesque exile in Japan
Journalists, friends, and supporters of Feng Zhenghu, who I interviewed in Tokyo on Monday as he was about to end his involuntary exile in Japan, have been making full use of the Internet to document his arrival home in Shanghai’s Pudong Airport this afternoon.
Chinese authorities detain Uighur Web site managers
New York, October 30, 2009—Chinese police have reportedly arrested two Uighur journalists who published online about Uighur issues in Xinjiang, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Chinese authorities blamed local and international Uighur Web sites for fueling July’s ethnic violence, according to international news reports.
Jiang Weiping, China
Jiang Weiping is a 2001 International Press Freedom Award winner and veteran journalist. Jiang was jailed in China on charges of “revealing state secrets” and sentenced to nine years in prison following a secret trial held on September 5, 2001. He is former Dalian bureau chief for the newspaper Wen Hui Bao and reporter for…
Xinjiang reporters detained; Beijing commentator missing
New York, July 13, 2009–Chinese police should halt the detentions of journalists reporting on ethnic violence in Xinjiang and reveal the whereabouts of a Uighur academic and Internet commentator who is missing and reportedly detained in Beijing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
‘The mob turned on us’: Foreign reporters in Xinjiang
Chinese authorities have, unusually, welcomed foreign reporters to Xinjiang since ethnic rioting broke out on Sunday in Urumqi between the Uighur minority and Han Chinese. A Beijing-based agency has even offered to facilitate travel, according to one writer who blogs from Shanghai. (CPJ hasn’t confirmed his story. Have any other reporters been approached in this…
China: Some surprises, some old news in Xinjiang
Security forces were protecting, rather than harassing, international journalists covering riots in northwestern Xinjiang this week–a welcome change. A few have reported official interference since Sunday. But during previous outbursts of ethnic unrest in China’s Tibetan and Uighur autonomous regions, security forces have repeatedly antagonized and expelled the foreign press corps. Foreign reporters this week…
One year after Sichuan, six after SARS, 33 after Tangshan
One of our news alerts on Monday detailed the harassment reporters faced as they tried to cover the anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake, one of China’s greatest natural disasters. Today, on the anniversary, newspapers marked the event with strong coverage. That’s a world of difference from the years of coverage that obscured the breadth of…
Truth beyond bars: Jiang Weiping on being jailed for work
Jiang Weiping, a 2001 CPJ Press Feedom Award winner, spoke on Tuesday on a panel organized by the Ford Foundation in Washington, along with CPJ board member Clarence Page and Executive Director Joel Simon. The panel addressed the concerning number of journalists jailed worldwide–125, according to CPJ’s 2008 census–and discussed how advocacy by CPJ and other…
CPJ presses Human Rights Council on China
Dear sirs: On Monday, your representatives will participate in the U.N. Human Rights Council’s first review of China’s human rights record. As part of the review, countries are required to submit their questions in advance, and CPJ welcomes your questioning of China’s press freedom record.