Ching Cheong

Prominent Journalist Detained

Sydney PEN strongly protests the recent arrest and detention of Ching Cheong, the Hong Kong based correspondent for The Straits Times newspaper, and calls for his immediate release.

According to recent reports, Ching Cheong was detained in late April 2005 in Guangzhou, southern China. The authorities have accused him of being a foreign agent and intend to charge him with "stealing core state secrets", but have so far failed to furnish any evidence to substantiate their allegation.

Sources familiar with the case claim that Ching Cheong was attempting to get hold of a manuscript of secret interviews with the late Zhao Ziyang, a former Premier and Secretary-General of the Communist Party who opposed the government clampdown on the Tiananmen Square protestors in 1989, which led to his political downfall. It has been reported that the publication of the interviews would be extremely damaging to the Communist regime in China.

International PEN believes the detention of Ching Cheong to be unwarranted, and a violation of his right to free expression.
Read our letter. And send your own:

-Expressing alarm at Ching Cheong's detention and urging the Chinese authorities to release him;
-Referring to concerns about the seemingly intractable intolerance of dissent in China and a corresponding pattern of harassment and arrests of writers and journalists;
-Urging the Chinese authorities to respect the right to free expression as guaranteed under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Appeals to:

His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People's Republic of China
State Council
Beijing 100032
The People's Republic of China
Salutation: Your Excellency

His Excellency Wen Jiabao
Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China
The State Council
9 Xihuangcheng Genbeijie
Beijing 100032
The People's Republic of China
Fax: +86 10 6596 1109
Salutation: Your Excellency

His Excellency Zhang Fusen
Minister of Justice
10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie
Chaoyangqu
Beijing 100020 
The People's Republic of China 
E-mail: minister@legalinfo.gov.cn
Fax: +86 10 65 292345
Salutation: Your Excellency

Her Excellency Fu Ying
Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China
15 Coronation Drive Yarralumla, ACT 2600
Canberra Australia
Email: chinaemb_au@mfa.gov.cn
Fax: (02) 6273-9615