Conference Calls For Release of Chinese Journalists
Posted by Larry Kilman on April 19, 2008 at 11:59 AM
An international conference on press freedom in China has called on Chinese authorities to honour their Olympic pledge to respect freedom of expression and to release all jailed journalists.
More than 30 journalists and 50 cyber-dissidents are being held in prisons in China, the world's largest jailer of journalists. The call for their release was made by the "Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom" conference, which was co-organised by the World Association of Newspapers, the World Press Freedom Committee, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights in China, Asia Presse and the Knight Foundation.
More than 10,000 athletes will be going to Beijing for the Summer Olympics in August. Thirty thousand foreign journalists will be covering it all - three journalists for every athlete.
Chinese authorities promised in their successful Olympic bid that media would have "complete freedom to report when they come to China." They haven't lived up to that promise, notably is their harassment and expulsion of journalists trying to cover the Tibetan events in March.
Chinese journalists have it even worse: 31 have been jailed since the successful Olympic bid in 2001, and 16 of those remain in prison - half of all Chinese journalists currently in prison.
The two-day conference, which ended Saturday, called on Chinese authorities to respect their pledges to improve human rights and press freedom conditions, and for the International Olympic Committee and others in the international community to press them to do so.
More conference details can be found here.
The view of award-winning Chinese journalist Gao Yu can be found here.
Source: World Association of Newspapers
More than 30 journalists and 50 cyber-dissidents are being held in prisons in China, the world's largest jailer of journalists. The call for their release was made by the "Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom" conference, which was co-organised by the World Association of Newspapers, the World Press Freedom Committee, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights in China, Asia Presse and the Knight Foundation.
More than 10,000 athletes will be going to Beijing for the Summer Olympics in August. Thirty thousand foreign journalists will be covering it all - three journalists for every athlete.
Chinese authorities promised in their successful Olympic bid that media would have "complete freedom to report when they come to China." They haven't lived up to that promise, notably is their harassment and expulsion of journalists trying to cover the Tibetan events in March.
Chinese journalists have it even worse: 31 have been jailed since the successful Olympic bid in 2001, and 16 of those remain in prison - half of all Chinese journalists currently in prison.
The two-day conference, which ended Saturday, called on Chinese authorities to respect their pledges to improve human rights and press freedom conditions, and for the International Olympic Committee and others in the international community to press them to do so.
More conference details can be found here.
The view of award-winning Chinese journalist Gao Yu can be found here.
Source: World Association of Newspapers
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