China tops the world in jailing journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that the number of detainees spiked in 2014, and is the longest it's been since CPJ started tracking numbers in 1990.

|
Kin Cheung/AP
In this June 9, 2012 file photo, Chinese journalist Gao Yu attends an opening ceremony of Chinese artist Liu Xia's photo exhibition in Hong Kong. Gao went on trial last month in closed-door proceedings in Beijing on accusations of leaking state secrets.

China topped another global list of superlatives Wednesday: Its government has jailed more journalists than any other in the world.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says in its annual report that 44 reporters languish in Chinese prisons. Second-placed Iran has locked up 30 journalists, according to the report.

The list of imprisoned Chinese journalists is longer than it has ever been since CPJ began keeping records in 1990. That reflects “the increasingly repressive media and general political atmosphere that has evolved” since President Xi Jinping took power two years ago, writes Bob Dietz, coordinator of the CPJ’s Asia program, in a commentary published alongside the report.

The number of detainees jumped from 32 last year, partly because Ilham Tohti, a prominent Uighur teacher and blogger, was jailed last month along with six of his Uighur students who worked on the “Uighurbiz” blog.

Nearly half the journalists held in Chinese jails are Tibetan or belong to the Uighur ethnic minority – a predominantly Muslim people from the far Western province of Xinjiang, where the authorities have responded harshly to a rising tide of separatist and religiously inspired violence.

But there has also been an increase this year “in the number of more mainstream, non-minority journalists who found themselves behind bars,” Mr. Dietz says.

They include 80-year-old Huang Zerong, who writes under the pen name of Tie Lu. He was arrested in September, not long after he had written an article criticizing the government’s propaganda tsar Liu Yunshan that was published on the Internet and in Chinese overseas media. He was later charged with “creating a disturbance” and is in custody awaiting trial.

Human rights activists have noted a tightening of restrictions on all forms of political expression over the past two years. “We have noticed a lot of people who get involved in political affairs being detained and sometimes formally arrested,” especially if they are active online, says William Nee, a researcher in Hong Kong with Amnesty International.

He points to the fate of citizens rights activist Liu Ping, sentenced in June to six-and-a-half years in jail after she posted a photo online showing herself with a group of colleagues holding a banner demanding that officials should declare their wealth.

“It is part of a broader crackdown on independent Chinese voices” that challenge the ruling Communist party’s orthodoxy, Mr. Nee adds.

As the party has strengthened its grip on Chinese society, the media are a prime battleground for official ideologists.

Last year, a leaked secret party document titled “No. 9” that outlined the ideological dangers said to be facing China, stressed the importance of ensuring “unwavering adherence to the principle of the party’s control of the media.”

One of the new victims on the CPJ’s list is Gao Yu, a veteran journalist who has been charged with sending state secrets abroad. The secret she is said to have revealed is “Document No. 9.” Ms. Gao, who is being held at Beijing's No. 1 Detention Center, pleaded not guilty at a closed trial that began last month, and is awaiting a verdict.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to China tops the world in jailing journalists
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2014/1217/China-tops-the-world-in-jailing-journalists
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe