News: China Jails Journalist for Two Years Without Trial

Awaiting a Democratic Hong Kong

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Tue May 11,10:45 PM ET Add World – Reuters to My Yahoo!

BEIJING (Reuters) – A freelance Chinese journalist, who posted Internet essays commemorating the ill-fated 1989 pro-democracy protests, has been jailed for two years without trial, a U.S. rights group said on Wednesday.

Liu Shui, 37, a former editor and reporter for the outspoken Southern Metropolis News and the Shenzhen Evening News, was detained in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen on May 2 and accused of soliciting prostitutes, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Liu was ordered to serve two years of “custody and education,” a form of administrative detention specifically designed for accused prostitutes and their clients, in apparent retaliation against his Internet essays, said the committee, which defends global press freedom.

Before his arrest, Liu posted essays on the Internet commemorating the June 4, 1989, military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and calling for political reforms and the release of political prisoners, the group said.

“Liu Shui’s arrest is another example of Chinese authorities using spurious criminal charges against a journalist who has challenged the political status quo,” said committee deputy director Joel Simon.

“Fifteen years after the June 4 crackdown, China’s leaders have proven that they still will not tolerate any open discussion of political and social reforms,” Simon said.

A spokesman for the Shenzhen city government denied knowledge of Liu’s incarceration.

It was the fourth time Liu had been arrested, the group said.

He was jailed for 15 months in 1989 for his role in the democracy movement in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, it said. He was imprisoned for three years in 1994 after editing the book “The Truth About the June 4th Incident” and briefly detained in 1998.

PS. Born and Banned in China: Tiananmen Square and Internet Censorship (Glutter in Popmatters)