China arrests citizen journalists for reporting Tiananmen 'self-immolation'

[ 时间:2014-03-16 22:51:26 | 作者:Jonathan Kaiman | 来源:六四天网转载 ]

Founder of human rights website and three others are held after reporting incidents including apparent self-immolation in Beijing

Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing
theguardian.com, Thursday 13 March 2014 11.38 GMT

Police on patrol in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Photograph: Petar Kujundzic/Reuters

Chinese rights activist Huang Qi, who has been arrested, works on his laptop in his home in Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan province in 2012. Source: AP

A PROMINENT Chinese human rights activist has been arrested, as the government escalates its campaign against people it considers dissidents.

Amnesty has confirmed Huang Qi, the founder 64 Tianwang, a website that exposes prominent people arrested by police, was detained late yesterday in Chengdu, in China’s southwest.

It was reported that Mr Huang was arrested by 11 police and had a mobile phone and computers seized in a raid on his home.

Mr Huang is well known in China for exposing human rights violations and human trafficking over the past 15 years. He has already served five years in jail and been accused of exposing “state secrets” in the past.

Amnesty also confirmed that police had detained Liu Xuehong, Xing Jian and Wang Jian, who worked for the website in Beijing, at the weekend.

The group were accused of “provoking trouble” as they campaigned for the plight of petitioners during the National People’s Congress, the annual parliamentary session, held over the past 10 days in Beijing.

Amnesty International China researcher William Nee said Chinese authorities needed to release Huang immediately.

“There appears one to be a concerted campaign of intimidation by the Chinese authorities against those associated with the website,” he said.

“Once again the authorities have shown their intent to stifle debate on human rights in China.”