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National Congress urged to consider problem of fundamental rights
Reporters Without Borders 无国界记者 | 3 March 2011
Reporters Without Borders urges the 3,000 delegates attending the annual 10-day plenary session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) that begins this weekend to push for a greater opening in China and to take note of popular protest movements in North Africa and the Middle East and the desire of peoples for democracy.
The delegates, all of whom have been selected by the authorities, will gather at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to rubber-stamp decisions already taken by the ruling Communist Party. They will pass the 12th five-year plan, which lays emphasis on controlled growth, a narrowing of social inequality and a greater respect for the environment.
Reporters Without Borders calls on the government to make a gesture as regards the 2010 Nobel peace laureate, Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year jail sentence, and to release him without delay.
The government must also end the enforced disappearances and sham releases from custody, both of which are increasing at an alarming rate. The authorities are increasingly using a range of methods to ensure that human rights activists disappear. They announce that they have freed dissidents from detention centres, only to keep them and their families locked up in other, separate locations.
Victims of this technique include Liu’s wife Liu Xia, the Mongolian journalist Hada, the human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, as well as the Mongolian writer Govruud Huuchinhuu, who has been missing since 27 January. (Reporters Without Borders is releasing a list of all those who have been the victims of forced disappearances or sham releases.)
Reporters Without Borders calls on the Chinese authorities to come to their senses following the draconian clampdown they imposed on the media in reaction to the wave of protest in North Africa and the Middle East. They clearly fear the unrest could spread to Chinese soil and are therefore highly sensitive to questions of freedom of expression and the rights of journalists to freely exercise their profession. This attitude, as well as their intransigence over demands for greater democracy, can only lead to an impasse.
We therefore call on China’s leaders to consider responding with greater flexibility to the sincere aspiration in the country for justice and liberty.
Following the appalling waves of censorship that followed the unrest in Tibet in 2008 and in Xinjiang in 2009, this is the third stage in the long history of violation of the basic rights of the media by the Chinese government, which prevents journalists from doing their job.
With 77 cyber-dissidents and 30 journalists in prison, the Chinese government must rise to the challenge of what is a fundamental demand for its people – free speech. Media freedom cannot be sacrificed to economic development.
Source:
中国
禁忌大会
国家最高权力机构全国人民代表大会(ANP)一年一度的全体会议将于2011年3月5日星期六召开，会议将持续十天。3000名代表将齐集北京人民大会堂，批准共产党的决定。这些当局选定的代表将出席并通过第十二个“五年计划”，该计划把重点放在有控制的发展、减少社会不平等和更好地保护环境方面。
在如此重大政治会议召开之际，无国界记者呼吁中国代表拿出更加开放的态度，从中东抗议活动以及人们对民主的要求中获得教训。
无国界记者劝告中国政府向2010年诺贝尔和平奖获得者刘晓波作出表示，考虑立即将其释放。刘晓波被判十一年徒刑，现正在狱中。另外，当局应该停止强制失踪、以及越来越频繁的虚假释放的做法。无国界记者观察到，当局花样翻新，用更加多样的方法让维权人士消失。当局宣布释放异见者，可实际上仍然把他们和他们的家人扣押在其他拘留中心，比如内蒙古记者哈达、律师陈光诚、刘晓波的妻子刘霞、从2011年1月27日开始失踪至今的作家呼群特古斯（无国界记者借此机会发布强制失踪、虚假释放的名单：）
自从中东抗议浪潮爆发后，无国界记者呼吁当局重新考虑严格控制媒体的决定，并希望能够做出理智的选择。当局害怕抗议浪潮蔓延到中国，对言论自由打压，对记者自由履行职责限制，面对民主呼声毫不让步，这种做法的结果只能是死路一条。我们要求决策者们仔细考虑，放宽限制，允许追求自由与公正。
2008年西藏事件和2010年新疆事件令人震惊的审查浪潮后，现在是中国政府长期压制媒体基本权利的第三个高潮，手法十分简单而直接：禁止记者工作。
77名网络异见者和30名记者被囚，中国政府要面对民众的巨大呼声：言论自由。经济发展不能以牺牲新闻自由这个基本权利为代价。
Source:
- http://rsf-chinese.org/spip.php?article609
Asia-Pacific Desk
Reporters Without Borders
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33 1 44 83 84 70
