Chinese Journalist Sentenced

A Chinese court has sentenced two Internet journalists, Sun Lin and He Fang, for what appears to be incitement and has sent Sun Lin to prison for four years. The journalists have responded that they were only criticizing the government's actions but have not engaged in illegal or criminal activity, and that the charges appear to stem from attempts to shut down that criticism. Here is part of the statement released by Reporters Without Borders, which is highly critical of the court's decision.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the four-year prison sentence that a court in the eastern city of Nanjing imposed on Sun Lin, a journalist better known by the pen-name Jie Mu, on 27 June. A contributor to the overseas Chinese news website Boxun, Sun was convicted of “gathering crowds to cause social unrest” and “illegal possession of firearms.” His wife, He Fang, who also contributes to Boxun, was released after being given a suspended prison sentence.

“Two well-known news website contributors have been given jail terms after an investigation marked by mendacious allegations and a trial marred by irregularities,” Reporters Without Borders said. “This is yet another tragic example of the government’s inability to tolerate journalists who dare to report news freely, without constraint or censorship.”

The press freedom organisation calls for the release of Sun and the one hundred other journalists, cyber-dissidents and press freedom activists currently held in China.

Read the entire statement on the organization's website here.