A Chinese Journalist in Peril
Published: March 17, 2005
The New York Times
Chinese journalists do not enjoy much legal protection, even if they work for well-respected international news organizations. Consider the case of our colleague Zhao Yan, a researcher in the Beijing bureau of The New York Times. For the past six months he has been held incommunicado by the Chinese government, barred from speaking with lawyers, family members or fellow Times employees.
Zhao Yan is far from the only journalist now locked up in a Chinese jail for practicing his profession, but we feel Mr. Zhao's detention especially closely. He is accused of providing state secrets to foreigners, a vague catch-all charge that Chinese authorities often invoke after reports of some piece of public business that Beijing would have liked to keep quiet. Last September, Chinese officials were angered by a Times article that accurately predicted the imminent retirement of a senior Communist Party leader, Jiang Zemin. They may have arbitrarily chosen Mr. Zhao as a target for their anger.
As China sets out to correct some of the distortions that have marred its modernization drive, it will need accurate, informative and fearless journalism more than ever - to shed light on official decision making, combat corruption and identify the problems needing public attention. It also needs to strengthen the rule of law, including guarantees of a free press. China's rapid material progress is visible to everyone. This case shows how far its legal and political system has to go to catch up.
Perhaps Chinese leaders felt that after holding Mr. Zhao incommunicado for so many months, international concern about his case would begin fading away. They need to be reminded that it will not.
- Re: A Chinese Journalist in Peril - NYTposted on 03/17/2005
this is a good comment, zhaoyan is innocent, he has done nothing but collecting information for the news organization.
press freedom remain to be a dream for the chinese journalists, even though there were lots of wishful thinkings goning on now
Please paste HTML code and press Enter.
(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation