----- Original Message -----
From: Steven Clift <clift@publicus.net>
To: <do-asia@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 10:34 AM
Subject: [do-asia] Chinese Cyber-dissidents
From:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8173
7 October 2003
Call for release of cyber-dissidents
Reporters Without Borders urged French President Jacques Chirac to
lobby for the release of 38 jailed Chinese cyber-dissidents when he
meets Chinese vice-premier Chen Zhili in Paris today.
Reporters Without Borders urged French President Jacques Chirac to
lobby for the release of 38 jailed Chinese cyber-dissidents and
Internet users when he meets Chinese vice-premier Chen Zhili in Paris
today at the inauguration of China Year in France.
It said the opening of the cultural festival must not be allowed to
obscure the severe crackdown on cyber-dissidents by the authorities,
who were trying hard to stamp out online freedom of expression in
China.
"The government is using very sophisticated equipment to censor the
Internet and hunt down online political dissidents," said the
organisation's secretary-general Robert MñÏard. "France must speak up
to get China to take meaningful steps towards freedom of expression.
President Chirac lobbying for the cyber-dissidents would send a
strong political message to China."
China is by far the world's biggest prison for Internet users, with
38 in jail at last count, nearly a third of them still awaiting
trial. Huang Qi, founder of the website www.6-4tiangwang.com,
arrested on 3 June 2000 and tortured, was not tried until three years
later.
The trial of another cyber-dissident, Ouyang Yi, has only just been
set, for 12 October, even though he has been in prison since 4
December last year. He is accused of sending over the Internet to a
political dissident the text of a petition calling for democratic
reforms.
Two cyber-dissidents, Luo Yongzhong and Li Zhi, were arrested in June
for posting online criticism of the new government. Such arrests
contradict the government's pledge to permit freedom of expression.
^ ^ ^ ^
Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net
Minneapolis - - - E: clift@publicus.net
Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667
USA - - - - - - M: +1.612.203.5181
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The Internet and Democracy Across Asia: MAY 2001
Online Trends in Governance, Civil Society and Media
More information at: http://www.e-democracy.org/do
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