15 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
A dissident writer who spent five years in a Chinese jail was released on Tuesday. Talking to Associated Press, Yang Maodong said he had been wrongly imprisoned and subjected to ill-treatment “beyond people’s imagination.” Yang said the charges of alleged illegal business activities for which he was jailed were trumped up and that his jailers only questioned him about his pro-democracy activities, not business matters. Yang was arrested in September 2006 and sentenced in November 2007. His prosecution is believed to relate to a publication entitled Shenyang Political Earthquake, which exposed government corruption in Shenyang, Liaoning province.
12 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Chinese rights activist Wang Lihong has been sentenced to nine months in prison for “stirring up trouble”. Wang was charged after attending a demonstration last year at the trial of three other activists in Fuzhou, southern China, supporting three bloggers accused of defamation for helping a woman who pressed officials to reinvestigate her daughter’s death. Wang was detained in March of this year, following the government’s widespread crackdown on dissent.
9 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
A sentence of six months and a suspended sentence of another year in prison were handed down on Tuesday to Gatot Machali, manager of Batam-based Radio Era Baru, who was found guilty of broadcasting without permission and disrupting neighbouring frequencies. The station’s president, Raymond Tan, citing a leaked copy of a letter from the Chinese embassy in Indonesia, said the prosecution is the result of direct pressure by the Chinese government on the Indonesian authorities with the aim of preventing the station from broadcasting its programmes in Chinese about human rights violations in the People’s Republic.
5 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Two outspoken Beijing newspapers, the Beijing Times and the Beijing News, have been brought under the direct authority of the Beijing Propaganda Department. Previously, the papers were overseen by state-level propaganda authorities. Some reporters claim the move, which was announced to newspaper staff on Friday, is part of a wider struggle over control of the media in China. There is also the fear that the move may restrict reporters’ abilities to cover events in the Chinese capital and sensitive news from other areas.
