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BEIJING (AFP) – A journalist who had worked for some of China’s most powerful propaganda media was jailed for 15 years after being accused of attacking the ruling Communist Party, court documents showed.
Chen Jieren was found guilty on Thursday (April 30) of “picking up disputes and causing trouble, extortion, illegal business operations and bribery,” a court in central Hunan province said in a statement released online.
The accusation of “seeking disputes and causing trouble” is a trap that Chinese authorities sometimes use against people who criticize the regime.
The verdict against Chen comes as China’s leadership faces international scrutiny over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with questions about whether the authorities covered up crucial information that could have prevented it from spreading worldwide.
Chen, who had once worked for the People’s Daily, the main spokesman for the Communist Party, had posted “false” and “negative” information online, according to the court statement.
“The defendant posted false information on blogs, public WeChat accounts, WeChat moments and other We-media to exaggerate relevant cases under the guise of providing legal advice,” he said.
The court said Chen worked as part of a group of “evil forces”, along with his ex-wife and three other people, who illegally accumulated 7.3 million yuan (S $ 1.5 million) from the business.
The watchdog of China’s Human Rights Defenders said Chen’s conviction was “apparently punishing him for his political speech on WeChat and other social media platforms,” and called for his immediate and unconditional release.
He said Chen had been fired from the state media, including the China Youth Daily, Beijing Daily and the People’s Daily.
Since then, he had posted online comments and investigative reports on social media, including WeChat and Weibo channels, he said.
The group accused the Chinese authorities of denying Chen a fair trial.
CRITICAL SILENCERS
China has faced criticism after authorities in the Wuhan coronavirus hometown rebuked whistleblowers who tried to raise an early alarm about the virus, prompting allegations that the cover-up may have fueled the pandemic. .
Authorities also cracked down on Chinese citizen journalists who reported on the effects of the pandemic.
In February, China expelled 13 American journalists with the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal who were among the foreign media that widely reported on the coronavirus in China.
Beijing said the move was in retaliation for new restrictions on the number of Chinese citizens who can work for their state propaganda media on US soil.
But the expulsions have raised alarm, with media organizations and all three newspapers warning that the action jeopardizes “access to critical information” about the pandemic.
Chinese freedom of expression has always been strictly controlled by the Communist Party, but that control has been stifled under Xi.
Last year, a Chinese court sentenced “cyber dissident” Huang Qi, whose website reported on sensitive topics, including human rights, to 12 years in prison for “leaking state secrets.”
This year, the space for independent discussion has been further reduced, as the Xi government has tried to deflect blame for the virus, which scientists believe grew out of a wild animal market in Wuhan.
Ren Zhiqiang, an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party and millionaire property mogul, was detained after writing a fiercely critical essay on Xi’s response to the outbreak.
Three Beijing-based internet activists have also gone missing and are believed by police to be holding them for filing censored coronavirus news online, a relative of one of the activists said this week.
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