Asia - Thursday, May 8, 2008 4:07 - 0 Comments

Repression of Journalists Continues in China

Reporters Without Borders condemns a decision by the Chinese authorities to place a journalist known by the name of Naranbilig under house arrest for a year after holding him for 20 days in Inner Mongolia. It also condemns the 3 May arrest of writer Zhou Yuanzhi, who may now be charged with “inciting subversion of state authority” as many other Chinese intellectuals and dissidents have already.

“With just three months left to the Beijing Olympic Games, the authorities continue to jail people who express independent or critical views in different parts of the country,” the press freedom organization said. “Whether it is a Mongol journalist or a writer in Hubei province, they are silenced with the same determination. Far from view, the repression continues as the games draw near.”

Naranbilig, an independent journalist and human rights activist of Mongol origin, was arrested on 23 March at his home in Hohhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. His family was not informed of his arrest until he was released on bail of 1,850 euros and placed under house arrest for one year beginning on 12 April. The police searched his home, confiscating his computer and many personal documents. Continue…