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Alert

Journalist Ching Cheong to appeal against unfair verdict

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has said it backs the decision of Ching Cheong, of the Singapore daily "Straits Times" in Hong Kong, to appeal against his five-year prison sentence for "spying".

The press freedom organisation also joined the Hong Kong Journalists' Association in repeating its call for his immediate release. "We are firmly convinced that this heavy sentence is designed to punish an investigative journalist and to sow fear among the Hong Kong press," it said.

Ching's lawyer He Peihua confirmed to Agence France-Presse that an appeal had been lodged with a court in Beijing on 8 September 2006. "He and his family consider the sentence too harsh and unjust," he said.

The journalist, who has always protested his innocence, has had a message passed to his family calling the verdict unfair.

The press freedom organisation said it was shocked at the manipulation of information contained in the document that was presented as the verdict in Ching's trial, published by a newspaper in Hong Kong.

The spying charge was based solely on his professional contacts with researchers with a Taiwanese foundation. If Ching Cheong was indeed paid by the Taiwanese foundation to write articles on subjects of geo-strategic importance that does not in any way amount to espionage, the organisation said.

The entire procedure was riddled with irregularities and secrecy and the justice system is hiding behind alleged confessions by Ching Cheong and imprisoned Chinese academics obtained in circumstances contrary to international norms of justice.

Moreover the type of news put out by the journalist, which the justice system termed "state secrets," reveals the paranoia of those in power in Beijing. Scores of journalists, dissidents and university professors are imprisoned in China for having divulged supposed "state secrets".

The Taiwanese government on 1 September denied that Ching spied for Taipei. The authorities did however confirm that the Hong Kong reporter did have professional contacts with a Taiwanese research foundation.

On top of the prison sentence, the court sentenced Ching to fines of 300,000 yuan (30,000 euros) and 310,000 Hong Kong dollars (more than 30,000 euros). Some of his family's property in China has been seized. His wife, Mary Lau, expressed astonishment at the exorbitant fines. "They appear to think that we have a lot of money," she said.