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Bag tremmer for netaktiviteter
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Journalisters høje pris for pressefriheden
Af Helle Nissen Kruuse, hnk@djh.dk,
medlem af eJours redaktionsgruppe
Den kinesiske journalist Huang Qi, 40 år, har siddet
i fængsel siden 3. juni 2000. Hans forseelse var, at han
på sit netsted Tianwang
bragte artikler af eksil-kinesere og oplistede mennesker, der
er forsvundet i Kina de senere år. Hans kone og søn
har endnu ikke fået lov til at besøge ham.
Selv om retssagen sluttede i provinsen Sichuan for halvandet
år siden, er der endnu ikke faldet dom i sagen. Seneste
retsmøde var berammet til 28. februar, men blev aflyst,
fortæller Huang Qi's kone, Zeng Li, på netstedet,
der nu hostes i udlandet.
Det er usikkert, hvor mange mennesker Kina har sendt bag tremmer
for at have publiceret uvelkomment materiale på internettet.
Hvad egentlige journalister angår, anslår The Committee
to Protect Journalists, at der er mindst 15. Reporters Without
Borders taler om 'cyber-dissidents' og mener, at 36 befinder sig
i kinesiske fængsler for at have lagt 'statsfjendtligt'
materiale på nettet.
Kinas 'rekord'
Her op til Den internationale Pressefriheds Dag 3. maj kan
the Comittee to Protect Journalists konstatere, at antallet af
fængslede journalister er steget drastisk i det forløbne
år.
136 journalister befinder sig bag tremmer, en stigning på
68 pct siden udgangen af 2000. Langt over en fjerdedel af dem,
i alt 39, befinder sig i kinesiske fængsler (og de 15 på
grund af netaktiviteter).
For fjerde år i træk må Kina bære den
skammens 'verdensrekord'.
Tallene er opgjort af organisationen Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ) i dens netop udsendte årbog
"Attacks
on the Press in 2002" (kan hentes i fuldtekst på
nettet), hvor der berettes om 500 tilfælde af angreb på
pressefolk i 120 lande rækkende fra direkte drab, vold,
fængsel og censur til chikanerier.
Pressefrihedens dag bliver markeret verden over. Bl.a. med
appeller og protestskrivelser i konkrete sager som organisationen
Reporters Without Borders' appel
4. april om løsladelse af Huang Qi.
Avisernes verdensomspændende organisation the World Association
of Newspapers har til dagen stillet artikler, essays, infografik,
statistik mv gratis til rådighed online på stedet
"3May
- World Press Freedom Day", hvor der også opdateres
løbende om de aktuelle forhold for journalister i Irak.
UNESCO markerer dagen med uddeling af den årlige World
Press Freedom Price. Den kaldes Guillermo Cano-prisen efter
en colombiansk journalist, der blev myrdet foran sin arbejdsplads,
avisen El Espectador i Bogota 1986. Prisvinderen indstilles af
en international jury sammensat af 14 mediefolk. I år overrækkes
den 3. maj i Kingston, Jamaica, til den israelske journalist Amira
Hass, som de sidste 10 år har boet i de palæstinensiske
områder og rapporteret herfra til den israelske avis Ha'aretz.
Betalt en høj pris
CPJ's arkiver
er deprimerende læsning. Her skildes den pris, som navngivne
journalister har måttet betale for deres netaktiviteter:
Kina
- Wu Yilong, Zaiye Dang, Mao Qingxiang, Zaiye
Dang, Zhu Yufu, Zaiye Dang, Xu Guang, Zaiye Dang.
Imprisoned 1999. Wu, Mao, Zhu, and Xu, all leading China Democracy
Party (CDP) activists, were reportedly detained sometime around
June 4, the 10th anniversary of the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy
demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. The four were later charged
with subversion for establishing a magazine called Zaiye Dang
(Opposition Party) and circulating pro-democracy articles and
essays on the Internet. They were respectively sentenced to 11,
8, 7 and 5 years in prison.
- Zhang Ji, free-lancer. Imprisoned: October 1999. Zhang
Ji, a student at Qiqihar University, was charged with "disseminating
reactionary documents via the Internet". Zhang had allegedly
been distributing news and information about the banned spiritual
movement Falun Gong. He was arrested in October as part of the
Chinese government's crackdown on the sect. Before Zhang's arrest,
Chinese authorities had stepped up their surveillance of the
Internet as part of their effort to crush Falun Gong.
- Liu Weifang, free-lancer. Imprisoned: October 2000.
Liu was arrested sometime after September 26, 2000, when security
officials came to his house, confiscated his computer, and announced
that he was being officially investigated, according to an account
that Liu posted on the Internet. The essays he wrote on the Internet
covered topics such as official corruption, development policies
in China's western regions, and environmental issues. At press
time, the articles were available online at: http://liuweifang.ipfox.com.
The official Xinjiang Daily characterized Liu's work as "a
major threat to national security." Liu was sentenced to
three years in prison.
- Lu Xinhua, free-lancer. Imprisoned: March 2001. Lu
was arrested in mid-March after articles he had written about
rural unrest and official corruption appeared on various Internet
news sites based overseas. On April 20, he was charged with "inciting
to subvert state power". Lu's trial began on September 18.
On December 30, Lu was sentenced to four years in prison.
- Yang Zili, free-lancer, Xu Wei, Xiaofei Ribao,
Jin Haike, free-lancer, Zhang Honghai, free-lancer.
Imprisoned: March 13, 2001. Yang, Xu, Jin, and Zhang were detained
on March 13 and charged with subversion on April 20. The four
were active participants in the "Xin Qingnian Xuehui"
(New Youth Study Group), a group of individuals who explored
topics related to political and social reform and used the Internet
to circulate relevant articles. Yang and Xu were detained separately
on March 13. Less is known about the circumstances under which
Zhang and Jin were detained, but they were also taken into custody
around mid-March. All four were tried on September 28 by the
Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court, but no verdict
had been announced in the case by the end of 2002.
- Wang Jinbo, free-lancer. Imprisoned: May 2001. Wang,
a free-lance journalist, was arrested in early May 2001 for e-mailing
essays to overseas organizations arguing that the government
should change its official view that the 1989 protests in Tiananmen
Square were "counterrevolutionary." In October 2001,
Wang was formally charged with "inciting to subvert state
power." On November 14, the Junan County Court in Shandong
Province held a closed trial; only the journalists' relatives
were allowed to attend. On December 13, 2001, Wang was sentenced
to four years in prison. Wang, a member of the banned China Democracy
Party, had been detained several times in the past for his political
activities. In February 2001, days before the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) visited Beijing, he was briefly taken into custody
after signing an open letter calling on the IOC to pressure China
to release political prisoners. A number of Wang's essays have
been posted on various Internet sites. One, titled "My Account
of Police Violations of Civil Rights," describes his January
2001 detention, during which police interrogated him and held
him for 20 hours with no food or heat after he signed an open
letter calling for the release of political prisoners.
- Tao Haidong, free-lancer. Imprisoned: July 9, 2002.
Tao, an Internet essayist and pro-democracy activist, was arrested
in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region,
and charged with "incitement to subvert state power."
According to the Minzhu Luntan (Democracy Forum) Web site, which
had published Tao's recent writing, his articles focused on political
and legal reform. Previously, in 1999, Tao was sentenced to three
years of "re-education through labor" in Xi'an, Shaanxi
Province. After his early release in 2001, Tao began writing
essays and articles and publishing them on various domestic and
overseas Web sites. In early January 2003, the Urumqi Intermediate
Court tried Tao, but no sentence has been announced.
- Zhang Wei, Shishi Zixun, Redian Jiyao. Imprisoned:
July 19, 2002. Zhang was arrested and charged with illegal publishing
after producing and selling two underground newspapers in Chongqing,
in central China. Zhang edited two newspapers, Shishi Zixun (Current
Events) and Redian Jiyao (Summary of the Main Points), which
included articles and graphics he had downloaded from the Internet.
Two of Zhang's business associates, Zuo Shangwen and Ou Yan,
were also arrested on July 19, 2002, and indicted for their involvement
with the publications. The government declared that "the
political rumors, shocking 'military reports,' and other articles
in these illegal publications misled the public, poisoned the
youth, negatively influenced society and sparked public indignation.".
On December 25, 2002, the Yuzhong District Court in Chongqing
sentenced Zhang to six years in prison. Zuo was sentenced to
five years, while Ou was sentenced to two years in prison.
- Chen Shaowen, free-lancer. Imprisoned: August 2002.
Chen, a free-lance writer, was arrested on suspicion of "using
the Internet to subvert state power," according to a September
14 report in the official Hunan Daily. Chen, who lives in Lianyuan,
Hunan Province, has written numerous essays and articles for
various overseas Chinese-language Web sites, including the online
magazine Huang Hua Gang and Minzhu Luntan (Democracy Forum).
Chen is still under investigation, and it is not clear whether
he has been formally charged. His family has not been allowed
to visit him in detention.
Tunesien
- Zouhair Yahyaoui, TUNeZINE. Imprisoned: June 4, 2002.
Yahyaoui, editor of the online publication TUNeZINE, was arrested
at the Internet café where he worked in the capital, Tunis,
and detained. He was sentenced two weeks later to 28 months in
prison. A Tunis court found Yahyaoui guilty of intentionally
publishing false information, a violation of Article 306 of the
country's Penal Code. The charge stemmed from a number of articles
posted on TUNeZINE, including a piece criticizing the May 26,
2002, constitutional referendum in which 99.52 percent of voters
approved constitutional changes allowing President Zine el-Abidine
Ben Ali to run for a fourth term. Yahyaoui was also found guilty
of using stolen communication lines to post his Web site, a violation
of Section 84 of the Telecommunications Code.
Vietnam
- Nguyen Khac Toan, free-lancer. Imprisoned: January
8, 2002. Toan was arrested in an Internet café in the
capital, Hanoi. He had reported on protests by disgruntled farmers
and then transmitted his reports via the Internet to overseas
pro-democracy groups. Authorities later charged him with espionage.
On December 20, 2002, Toan was sentenced to 12 years in prison,
one of the harshest sentences given to a Vietnamese democracy
activist in recent years. Toan's trial took less than one day,
and his lawyer was not allowed to meet with him alone until the
day before proceedings began. The day after Toan was sentenced,
the official Vietnamese press carried reports stating that he
had "slandered and denigrated executives of the party and
the state by sending electronic letters and by providing information
to certain exiled Vietnamese reactionaries in France."
- Le Chi Quang, free-lancer. Imprisoned: February 21,
2002. Le Chi Quang, 32, was detained at an Internet café
in the capital, Hanoi. He had written and posted several articles
online criticizing government policy. On September 24, the state
prosecutor's office issued a document outlining specific charges
against Quang which cites several articles by Quang as evidence
of his "anti-government" activities, including an essay
titled "Beware of Imperialist China," which criticized
land and sea border agreements between China and Vietnam; essays
praising well-known dissidents Nguyen Thanh Giang and Vu Cao
Quan; and an article about the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral trade agreement.
On November 8, following a three-hour trial on national-security
charges, Quang was sentenced to four years in prison followed
by three years of house arrest. He was charged under articles
88 and 92 of the Criminal Code, which ban the distribution of
information that opposes the government.
Bemærk:
Vi prøver at linke præcist. Men konsekvensen kan
af og til være, at brugerne møder et dødt
link, fordi stoffet siden er blevet flyttet til en ny plads på
netstedet. Så må I prøve at lede lidt på
stedet.
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