Chinese authorities should immediately release
Zhang Yongsheng, a reporter for the state-owned Lanzhou Morning Herald,
who has been imprisoned since January 7, the Committee to Protect Journalists
said today. On Monday, authorities accused Zhang of extortion.
The announcement, published on the website of the Liangzhou
district government of Wuwei Municipality, said Zhang "used his position
as a journalist and in the name of public opinion supervision, to repeatedly
extort money and goods from others." According to Zhang's newspaper, which
is based in Lanzhou, Gansu province, police initially said the journalist had
been arrested for prostitution but later changed the charge to extortion.
The day after Zhang's arrest, Luo Huansu, a
reporter from the Lanzhou Evening Herald, (a separate outlet
to Zhang's), and Zhang Zhenguo, a reporter from theWestern Business Herald, were
detained by Wuwei police and accused of being his accomplices, according to news reports. Luo was charged with extortion and Zhang Zhenguo
is still under investigation, authorities said. Both journalists were released
on bail on Monday. Neither of those two journalists nor their newspapers
have commented on the case publicly.
"The allegations of extortion against Zhang
Yongsheng appear to be a punishment for his critical reporting, and the legal
process seems to be highly irregular," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program
coordinator. "We call on Chinese authorities to immediately release Zhang
on bail while they complete their investigation."
Zhang's lawyers toldreporters they filed a complaint with the prosecutor's
office onJanuary 20 after police repeatedly denied them access to the
jailed journalist. When the lawyers were finally allowed to meet with Zhang on
January 22, he denied the charges, the lawyers told the Chinese media. One of the lawyers told Caixin, a Beijing-based business magazine,
that he was ordered by authorities not to speak to the media.
The police allowed Zhang's wife to visit him in
prison, which is in violation of Chinese law, according to the Lanzhou
Morning Herald. During the meeting, Zhang asked his wife to replace the
current lawyers with a new one. Zhang's wife told the paper she believes Zhang
said this under pressure.
In an open letter published by the Lanzhou Morning
Herald on Monday, the newspaper denied Zhang was involved in
extortion. It said he had been repeatedly threatened for his critical reporting
and that people mentioned in Zhang's articles had tried to influence his
reporting by offering him cash and other goods. Zhang had told his employer
that an official from the Liangzhou Public Security Bureau had called him to
demand that an article on the corruption trial of the deputy head of the
district be deleted. According to the open letter, Zhang told the official he
could not delete it. In another instance, after Zhang refused to stop an
article being published about a suicide, Liangzhou police threatened him and
said, "Young man, you are from Wuwei. You do this [to us], you wait [and
see.]" Before his arrest, Zhang had frequently told one of his colleagues
"the Wuwei police are after me," the open letter said.
Corrupt practices among journalists are pervasive
in China, according to experts on Chinese media. Dozens of journalists, from
both the commercial media and state media, have been charged with bribery or
extortion-related crimes in the past couple of years. Given the lack of transparent due process and the
scarcity of independent investigative reporting in China, it is difficult to
determine whether there is any validity to the authorities' claims.
With at least 49 journalists in jail, China is the
leading jailer of journalists in the world, according to CPJ's annual prison census.
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