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Alert

Cyber-dissident Guo Qizhen sentenced to four years' imprisonment for "subversion"

(WAN/IFEX) - The following is a WAN letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao:

Premier Wen Jiabao
State Council of the People's Republic of China
Beijing, People's Republic of China
Email: english@mail.gov.cn

17 October 2006

Dear Premier Wen,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at the jailing of journalist Guo Qizhen for posting politically sensitive essays on the internet.

According to reports, Mr Guo was today jailed for four years by a court in Hebei province for "subverting state sovereignty" after posting articles critical of the government on overseas websites. The charge of subversion is frequently used to silence cyber-dissidents. Mr. Guo, who was arrested in May, will reportedly appeal against the verdict.

We are seriously concerned at the government's ongoing crackdown on dissent. According to reports, about 50 cyber-dissidents and 30 journalists are currently imprisoned in China. These include Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, who was sentenced in August to five years in prison for spying for Taiwan, and Zhao Yan, a Chinese researcher for the New York Times, who was sentenced to three years in jail for fraud after he was found not guilty of leaking state secrets. A third recent case was that of Li Yuanlong, a journalist with the Bijie Daily newspaper in Guizhou, who was convicted of "inciting subversion of state sovereignty" on 13 July and sentenced to two years in prison.

We respectfully remind you that the jailing of Mr. Guo for posting articles on websites is a clear breach of his right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers."

We respectfully call on you to ensure that Mr. Guo and all others detained for expressing their opinions are immediately released from prison and that all charges against them are dropped. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O'Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.