Here are some extracts from the press release: 

 
The award comes a day after WAN launched a campaign to win the release of all jailed Chinese journalists, and to hold the Chinese authorities to the promises of reforms they made when they were awarded next summer's Olympics. More information can be found here.

Mr Li, a reporter and deputy news director of the Fuzhou Daily in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, was sentenced to three years in prison in January 2006, for "fabricating and spreading false information" after being detained
without charges for nearly a year. The charges stem from an anonymous report posted on Boxun News Network, a Chinese-language website based in the United States.

"The persecution of Mr Li for reporting on a serious health threat reveals the nonsense and bankruptcy of the Chinese regime's controlled press policies," the Board of the Paris-based WAN, meeting in Vienna, said in
making the award.

It is the second consecutive year that a Chinese journalist has received the award, an unprecedented decision that reflects the repressive conditions for media in China. The 2007 laureate was Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist who was imprisoned after the American search engine company Yahoo provided information to the Chinese authorities that led to his arrest.

Source: WAN Press Release