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Alert

CPJ calls for journalist Zhao Yan's release on six-month anniversary of his arrest

(CPJ/IFEX) - In a 17 March 2005 letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, CPJ marked the six-month anniversary of the imprisonment of Zhao Yan, a news assistant for "The New York Times" who has been held incommunicado and without charge or trial since 17 September 2004. CPJ said it deplores Zhao's ongoing detention, which violates international law and the 2004 amendment to the Chinese Constitution safeguarding human rights.

Authorities in Shanghai detained the journalist in the fall of 2004. On 21 September, Zhao's family received a notice from the Beijing State Security Bureau accusing him of "providing state secrets to foreigners." Prosecutors issued a formal arrest warrant for Zhao on 20 October but did not specify the alleged actions leading to his arrest.

Zhao's associates have speculated that the government may be attempting to link him to a 7 September article in "The New York Times" that correctly predicted Jiang Zemin's retirement from his final leadership post on the Central Military Commission. His colleagues at "The New York Times" have repeatedly denied that Zhao provided any state secrets to the newspaper and have said the authorities seem to have targeted him "arbitrarily."

Zhao is also a well-known journalist in his own right who reported aggressively on farmers' rights issues for the Beijing-based "Zhongguo Gaige" ("China Reform") magazine prior to his work at the Beijing bureau of "The New York Times".

CPJ said the accusation against Zhao of "providing state secrets to foreigners" is particularly disturbing. Following a September mission to China, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention expressed concern about restrictions on the right to defence under ambiguously defined "state secrets" laws. At least eight of the 42 journalists imprisoned in China at the end of 2004 were held under these broadly applied laws, according to CPJ research. In Zhao's case, the accusation of "providing state secrets to foreigners" has unjustly deprived him of any contact with his defence lawyer, Mo Shaoping, his family, friends, and colleagues.

In 2004, the National People's Congress passed an amendment to the Chinese Constitution safeguarding human rights. Zhao's ongoing detention violates these constitutionally protected rights. CPJ reminded President Jintao that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China has signed, guarantees the right to freedom of expression, a prompt trial and communication with legal counsel.

CPJ called for Zhao's immediate and unconditional release and for the journalist to be allowed to continue his work.