Huang Jinqiu - Internet essayist and journalist

8 May 2008, 10:08PM

Huang Jinqiu

Huang Jinqiu criticised China and it cost him his freedom. The journalist has been jailed, tortured and beaten.

At one stage authorities tried to have Huang Jinqiu committed to a psychiatric hospital instead of being sent to a prison, but the hospital refused to admit him.

After a secret trial he is now serving 10 years for "subversion" in connection with his "reactionary" online writings.

Huang Jinqiu is a published author and a graduate of Beijing's respected Lu Xun Literature Institute and the United Kingdom's University of Lincoln.

We consider Huang Jinqiu to be a prisoner of conscience, jailed for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and association. We are calling on authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally.

Overseas scholarship

In 2000, a then 26-year-old Huang Jinqiu, who uses the pen name Qing Shuijun, won a scholarship to study journalism in Malaysia.

During his time overseas, with access to new information, he became politically active and often contributed to foreign Chinese language news websites, like Boxun News.

US-based Boxun runs stories about human rights abuses in China, as well as essays and political commentaries written by Chinese people living outside China.

In early 2003, seven months before returning to China, Huang Jinqiu announced plans to set up the China Patriotic Democracy Party. When he arrived back in China he was placed under tight surveillance and followed by the secret police.

On 10 September 2003, three days after posting an article on Boxun entitled "Me and my public security friends" he was taken away by authorities. He was held incommunicado for about four months before his family were officially informed of his arrest.

In June 2004 Huang Jinqiu was tried as the organiser of the China Patriotic Democracy Party, although the group was never actually established.

Tortured after appeal

We have reliable reports that Huang Jinqiu has been tortured and mistreated several times while in custody. In late 2004 he was reportedly subject to sleep deprivation after he tried to make a second appeal against his conviction.

In another incident he was forced to run around a prison yard for long periods, and beaten if he stopped. Huang Jinqiu has also been beaten by other inmates on the orders of prison authorities.

His situation reportedly improved in 2006, possibly because he decided not to go ahead for a further appeal and because of international pressure about the case.

Huang Jinqiu, who is not due for release until 2013, is now allowed to listen to the radio, and write and edit for the prison newsletter.

Media clampdown

Around 30 journalists and 50 Internet users are known to be behind bars in China. Media freedom organisations have labeled the country the world's leading jailer of journalists.

In the build up to the Olympics Chinese authorities are intensifying their already strict controls over media outlets, including newspapers, magazines and websites.

Journalists, activists and others reporting on sensitive issues, or who challenge the status quo, risk being dismissed from their jobs, arbitrarily detained or imprisoned

Censorship of the Internet and media prevents the public from finding out about a range of human rights abuses in China, such as accurate statistics on how many people authorities execute each year.

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After long-term imprisonment for speaking publicly about human rights issues, Wei Jingsheng was finally released with help from Amnesty International.

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