Press freedom
1 July 2001
International
Secretariat
Asia Pacific Desk
5, rue Geoffroy Marie - 75009 Paris France
Tél : (33) 1 44 83 84 70
Fax : (33) 1 45 23 11 51
E-mail : asie@rsf.org
Web : www.rsf.org
www.press-freedom.org
www.libertad-de-prensa.org
CHINA
New wave of censorship on Internet
Cyberdissident Huang Qi detained for more than one year without trial
In a letter addressed today to Chinese prime minister Zhu Rongji, Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders RSF), expressed indignation about the detention without trial of Huang Qi, who is charged with disseminating "subversive information" on the Internet. The organisation asked the prime minister to do everything possible to ensure the immediate release of Huang Qi. RSF also protested against the new wave of censorship on Internet forums and web sites accused of being critical. "While at least five newspapers have been punished by the authorities because of critical articles, the regime is again attacking the Internet," declared Robert Ménard, general secretary of RSF. "All of Beijing¹s promises to ensure total freedom for foreign journalists during the 2008 Olympics Games are very illusory when a wave of repression like this happens," added Robert Ménard.
According to information obtained by RSF, the trial of Huang Qi, creator of the 6-4tianwang.com web site, was postponed indefinitely. The cyberdissident charged with "dissemination of subversive information on the Internet" has been detained since 3 June 2000. His trial started last February but was postponed because of his health. He collapsed during the first hearing. According to his lawyer and his wife, Huang Qi was beaten during his interrogation. The trial was due to start again on 27 June, but a spokesman of the Chengdu court (Sichuan province, southwest of the country) announced that the trial was postponed again because of the 80th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. Huang Qi is accused to have published articles denouncing the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 1989 and texts by Chinese dissidents.
On 23 June, the Hong Kong based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy announced that authorities had again censored some Internet forums. One run by the Southern Weekend newspaper was closed on 18 June 2001 because it contained a great deal of criticism against the government¹s decision to fire two journalists who work for this weekly. Moreover, an online chatroom of the Xici Hutong web site called "Democracy and Human Rights" was closed on 22 June 2001 because web users condemned the repression against critical media. One million people visit this web site daily.
Again according to the Information Centre, the authorities also closed the online magazine Hot Topic, send to an email list of more than 235,000 Chinese web users. This magazine allegedly contains critical articles of the government. Finally, Chine police statistics show that authorities closed at least 8,000 Internet cafes in the last two months.