http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=3D26930
Repression of journalists continues with two more arrests
Re****ters Without Borders condemns a decision by the Chinese
authorities to place a journalist known by the name of Naranbilig
under house arrest for a year after holding him for 20 days in Inner
Mongolia. It also condemns the 3 May arrest of writer Zhou Yuanzhi,
who may now be charged with =93inciting subversion of state authority=94
as many other Chinese intellectuals and dissidents have already.
=93With just three months left to the Beijing Olympic Games, the
authorities continue to jail people who express independent or
critical views in different parts of the country,=94 the press freedom
organisation said. =93Whether it is a Mongol journalist or a writer in
Hubei province, they are silenced with the same determination. Far
from view, the repression continues as the games draw near.=94
Naranbilig, an independent journalist and human rights activist of
Mongol origin, was arrested on 23 March at his home in Hohhot, the
capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. His family was not
informed of his arrest until he was released on bail of 1,850 euros
and placed under house arrest for one year beginning on 12 April. The
police searched his home, confiscating his computer and many personal
do***ents.
The author of dozens of books and essays about the Mongol minority,
Naranbilig edited a monthly magazine called Golonte (=93Family Hearth=94)
that was banned in 2006 after only five issues. An ambassador of
Mongol culture and traditions, he represented the Southern Mongolian
nomad community in the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous People
(WAMIP).
According to the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre
(SMHRIC), he was arrested in an attempt to suppress the issue of
minorities in Inner Mongolia, as has already been done in Xinjiang, in
the north, and Tibet, in the west. Inner Mongolia=92s leading political
prisoner, the Mongol journalist Hada, has been detained since 1995 and
is serving a 15-year sentence for =93separatism=94 and =93spying.=94 His
family recently complained about the appalling conditions in which he
is being held and the deterioration in his health.
A writer and journalist aged 47, Zhou was arrested with his wife on 3
May in Zhongxiang, in the central province of Hubei, by the city=92s
State Security Bureau. According to the Independent Chinese PEN
Centre, a writers=92 association, he has not been seen since his arrest.
His wife was released and placed under house arrest. It is impossible
to reach their house by telephone.
Zhou was expelled from the Communist Party in 1992 after writing an
article for a Voice of America publication. The authorities have often
criticised him for raising social problems and government corruption
in the hundreds of articles he has written. The Zhongxiang police say
they have lots of evidence that would allow them to prosecute him on a
charge of =93inciting subversion of state authority.=94
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