China: Citizen Journalist Sentenced; Foreign Media Harassed
Event- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Jan 29, 2019
- Event Description
Liu Feiyue, founder of online rights monitor msguancha.com, has been sentenced to five years in prison and asset seizure for inciting subversion, AFP reports. Liu, who was detained in November 2016 and tried last August, is one of several citizen journalists to have been prosecuted in recent years. Liu Feiyue created and ran the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website, which covers a range of rights issues including protests, police abuses and government corruption - sensitive topics that are scrubbed from most Chinese media sites. Rights groups have been quick to condemn the sentencing. Human Rights Watch challenged the very basis of the case against Liu, noted several issues with the way it had been pursued, and highlighted the related prosecutions of Lu Yuyu, Zhen Jianghua, and Huang Qi, who stood trial last week.? "Prosecuting the editor of a human rights website shows just how frightened the Chinese government is about independent reporting on abuses from inside China," said Yaqiu Wang, China researcher. "Sending Liu Feiyue to prison for five years is a travesty of justice meant to scare off others who might follow in his footsteps." Similarly, from the Committee to Protect Journalists: "The harsh sentencing of Liu Feiyue illustrates how frightened and desperate Chinese leaders are to prevent the truth about their horrible record on human rights from being revealed," said Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "Liu Feiyue should be lauded for performing an important service in defense of the Chinese people, not locked away in prison." is mother Ding Qihua, who had never spoken to the media before her son's sentence, said she was promised by court officials and police ahead of the sentencing that he would get a suspended sentence resulting in his release if she and Liu's father agreed to undergo "ideological work." "The court wanted us to do some ideological work," Ding said, referring to a process through which those affected by a government decision come around to the authorities' way of seeing it. "They didn't want us talking to the media." "They said that once we'd done it, they would give him a suspended sentence," she said. But despite the fact that the elderly couple agreed to do as they were told, Liu was still handed a five-year jail term, Ding told RFA. "The court isn't to be trusted. They didn't keep their promise," Ding said. "They wanted us, his family, to go along with what they said, but they still handed him a heavy sentence." "I am extremely angry about this. We are very angry," she said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial
- Enactment of repressive legislation and policies
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Summary for Publications
On 29 January 2018, Liu Feiyue, founder of online rights monitor msguancha.com, has been sentenced to five years in prison and asset seizure for inciting subversion,