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Alert

Internet writer imprisoned

(CPJ/IFEX) - In a 21 July 2003 letter to President Hu Jintao, CPJ condemned the detention of Luo Yongzhong, a free-lance writer who has published more than 150 articles online, according to the New York-based organisation Human Rights in China (HRIC).

According to HRIC, on 13 June, Chinese national security officials arrested Luo at his apartment in the northeastern city of Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province. The officials also searched Luo's home, confiscating his computer, printer and copies of his writings.

The "South China Morning Post" reported that a spokesperson from the Jilin Provincial National Security Department denied that Luo had been detained. But evidence from HRIC suggests otherwise. Although it is not clear whether Luo has been formally charged, his older brother told HRIC that Luo is being held at the No. 3 Detention Centre in Changchun.

Luo's articles, many of which are still available online, address topics ranging from the plight of disabled people in China to the need for constitutional reform to ensure greater human rights protections. Luo himself suffers from a physical disability.

The Chinese-language website Boxun News, which is based in the U.S., has published several articles and essays carrying Luo's byline (though the site includes a disclaimer that the material should not be used as evidence to prosecute Luo since the articles were obtained simply by searching the Internet, and it is impossible to verify the author's true identity). In one of these essays attributed to Luo, dated 13 December 2002 and entitled "Turn mob mentality into citizen's democracy," the writer argues that, "Legal assistance cannot help the weak to protect their rights if we do not have a democratic supervising system that belongs to the people." (http://www.boxun.com/hero/huangsd/96_1.shtml)

In an 18 December 2002 essay, Luo writes that, "Human rights and democracy aren't something that the government would like everybody to discuss, because it is thought to be anti-government, unpatriotic. But I believe that a patriot must first of all try to uphold human rights and democracy." (http://www.boxun.com/hero/huangsd/92_1.shtml)

HRIC obtained another article by Luo that focused on the absence of legal protections for free speech in China.

Luo's arrest is the latest casualty of an ongoing crackdown on online speech. During the last several years, the government has imposed numerous stringent regulations on Internet content, has intensified efforts to monitor the private activities of individual Internet users, and has blocked access to thousands of Web sites (see IFEX alerts of 29, 20 and 12 May, 24 and 17 April, 7 and 3 March, 25 February 2003 and others).