Fergie's Tech Blog

China Throws Journalist in Jail

Sumner Lemon writes on InfoWorld:

Chinese authorities have jailed a journalist for two years for posting articles that were critical of Chinese society and called for democratic reforms on the Internet, a media watchdog group said Thursday.

Li Yuanlong, a journalist for a daily newspaper in Bijie in southwestern Guizhou province, was sentenced to two years in prison and loss of his civil rights for a further two years for posting "subversive" articles on the Internet, Reporters Without Borders said. Li's trial was held in May and the verdict was announced Thursday.

Li posted several articles online that were critical of modern Chinese society and called for greater freedom and democracy, Reporters Without Borders said. Two of his articles, entitled “Becoming American in Spirit” and “The Banal Nature of Life and the Lamentable Nature of Death,” angered officials, it said.

Li was arrested in September 2005, but he was not charged until February of this year.

posted by Fergie @ 7/14/2006 10:52:00 AM