2 Apr 2012 | Index Index, minipost
Reports have emerged suggesting a Chinese blogger who criticised a public official in his personal blog was secretly sentenced to prison in 2010. Voice of America has reported that Gao Yingpu, a journalist who has written for the Asia Pacific Economic Times, was sentenced to three years imprisonment in a secret trial. It is believed Gao was imprisoned following his criticism of disgraced Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai. Gao’s wife confirmed her husband was arrested in July 2010 and was sentenced for endangering state security. His former classmate told local media that the journalist’s wife signed a written promise not to publicise the case.
29 Mar 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
A Chinese human rights lawyer has been visited in prison by his family for the first time since he disappeared over two years ago. Gao Zhisheng, China’s best known human rights lawyer, was sentenced to three years in jail in 2006 for “inciting subversion of state power.” He was put on probation for five years, which meant he did not have to serve the sentence, but he was taken into custody throughout that period. Gao was taken from a relative’s home in northern China in February 2009. Last December, in the first official account of his whereabouts, state media reported that Gao was back in jail.
19 Mar 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
A crack in China’s firewall allowed dissident artist Ai Wei Wei to use a Twitter-like social media account for a short time on Sunday, before it shortly became inaccessible. The dissident artist was able to use micro-blogging platform Sina Weibo after discovering that his name was no longer blocked. Ai said his account was deleted shortly after midnight on Monday, and was replaced with a message that read: “Error. Invalid Weibo user”. During the short time the artist’s account was active, he attracted over 10,000 followers. New regulations which require Beijing-based microbloggers to declare their real names went into effect on Friday.
6 Mar 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
A web editor was jailed for 10 days for reposting an unconfirmed report that two local officials had been caught with prostitutes in China. Shang Laicheng, an editor at Tiantian Xin news forum was arrested on 17 February as he left work, and his family were informed he had been formally detained for spreading misinformation. The Foshan Procuratorate office said that the information in the post, suggesting two local prosecutors were caught using prostitutes at a sauna, was fabricated and had damaged the reputations of authorities. The original author of the post remains unclear.
