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SINO DAILY
Hong Kong erosion of press freedom deeply worrying: Amnesty
by Staff Writers
Hong Kong (AFP) May 28, 2014


Chinese news assistant detained ahead of Tiananmen anniversary
Beijing (AFP) May 28, 2014 - Foreign media workers Wednesday expressed alarm at Beijing's detention of a Chinese employee with a Japanese newspaper, the latest in a series of arrests before the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said it was "alarmed and deeply concerned" by reports of the detention of Xin Jian, which "raise the disturbing possibility that she is being punished for the routine discharge of her professional duty on behalf of her employer".

"The FCCC calls on the authorities to present evidence that Ms. Xin has broken the law or, in the absence of such evidence, to release her immediately," it said in a statement.

Xin, an assistant for Japan's Nikkei newspaper working in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, was taken away from her home by police on May 13, the paper said earlier.

She was detained on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking troubles", the paper said, citing a detention notice given by police to Xin's family on Monday.

The vague charge has been increasingly abused by the ruling Communist Party to round up dissenters, journalists and others it sees as a challenge to one-party rule, rights groups say.

Xin's detention came after a recent interview she conducted with Pu Zhiqiang, one of China's most celebrated human rights lawyers who was himself recently detained on the same charge, Nikkei has said.

Pu was detained in Beijing earlier this month with four others who attended a private seminar to discuss the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

They were crushed on June 4 that year when soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed civilians.

Police have detained on criminal charges some 20 prominent liberal academics, lawyers and activists in the past month, according to the US-based group Human Rights in China.

China tightly censors domestic media and has arrested several prominent journalists in the past year, while foreign reporters are subject to surveillance and restrictions on their freedom of movement.

Those restrictions increase in the run-up to dates the Communist Party deems sensitive, such as the Tiananmen anniversary.

Xin's husband Wang Haichun lamented his wife's detention in a series of postings Tuesday and Wednesday on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

"This time 14 days ago, you were taken away," he wrote on Tuesday morning. "8:35 on May 13. Our family should mark this moment."

"Please come back soon," he added. "I can't take being alone any longer."

The erosion of press freedom in Hong Kong is a cause for deep concern, the head of Amnesty International said Wednesday, urging residents to guard against a gradual loss of liberties.

Two senior figures from the Hong Kong Morning News Media Group were attacked in March, weeks after Kevin Lau -- a former editor of the liberal Ming Pao newspaper -- was critically wounded in a savage knife assault.

"Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the deteriorating state for freedom of expression in Hong Kong... the erosion of freedom of expression has been gradual and is nonetheless serious for that," the rights group's secretary general Salil Shetty said in a speech.

He said organisations such as Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House noted that China exerts influence over Hong Kong's media -- through direct pressure or indirect interference by editors or owners with interests in mainland China.

"The danger, of course, is that the attacks on freedom of the press could cause people to avoid speaking out and fear will encourage silence," Shetty said, adding there were also grounds for hope.

"One simply has to look at what happened after Kevin Lau was attacked. Something truly remarkable and inspiring happened -- more than 8,000 people marched in the streets of Hong Kong, rallying with the slogans: 'They can't kill us all!'" he said.

"If the goal of the attack was to make Hong Kongers fearful, it failed."

But Shetty said the city should be vigilant against the erosion of freedom of expression.

"Drop a frog into boiling water and it will immediately jump out again, heat the water gently and the frog allows itself to be boiled to death," he said.

"We should not allow the water to be gently brought to boiling point."

The former British colony was guaranteed freedom of the press and freedom of speech, among other rights, under a deal which led to its handover to China in 1997 as a semi-autonomous territory.

But concern is mounting that Beijing is seeking to tighten control over the city and that media freedom is being squeezed as a result.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in February media freedom in Hong Kong was currently "at a low point".

It cited self-censorship among reporters, financial and physical threats against the media and legislative steps that could hinder investigative reporting.

Lau was hacked with a cleaver in broad daylight in February by two men who escaped on a stolen motorbike.

The attack came weeks after he had been removed from the top job at liberal newspaper Ming Pao and replaced with an editor widely seen as pro-Beijing.

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