China: anti-corruption blogger detained over social media post
Event- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Oct 7, 2021
- Event Description
On October 7, Luo, who previously served as the deputy editor-in-chief of Beijing-based economic magazine Caijing, was summoned by a public security bureau in Sanya, a city in China’s Hainan Province, and later placed under detention.
According to the police notice, Luo was accused of ‘defaming heroes and martyrs’ because he referred to Chinese soldiers depicted in a recently released war propaganda film, “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” as ignorant. The comments were posted to Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, on October 6.
Luo came under fire for his remarks, with several state media outlets criticising Luo for ‘casting a smear on deceased war heroes’. On October 7, Luo apologised for the comments, describing them erroneous and acknowledging that they may have been offensive. His Weibo account has since been suspended. China has a history of quashing dissent by coercing journalists to publicly confess or apologise for actions against the state.
Luo, 40, has previously worked with China Business Herald and The Beijing News, and currently runs a legal consultancy firm. In 2013, he was awarded the Integrity Award by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International in recognition of his “courage to expose corruption.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Censorship
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Internet freedom
- Online
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 18.252999278357066
Longitude: 109.50239129082023
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 7 October 2021, Luo Changping, awarded anti-corruption blogger, had his social media accounts suspended and was detained by the police over a social media post critical of the Chinese soldiers portrayed in a propaganda movie in Sanya, China.