 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Internet Dissident Sentenced To Two Years In Prison In North China
Beijing (AFP) - Dec 09, 2003 Internet dissident Yan Jun, 32, has been sentenced to two years in prison on a subversion charge for posting essays online calling for change, including a free press and free expression, his family said Monday. The Xian Intermediate People's Court sentenced him Monday morning on a charge of "inciting subversion," his mother Dai Yuzhen told AFP. "The court took no more 20 minutes," Dai said by telephone from Xian in Shaanxi province. Family members and Yan could not understand the court's decision, Dai said. "I can't accept this verdict. Just because he wrote a few essays, he's going to jail? I can't make sense of it," Dai said. Yan told the court he planned to appeal, Dai said. The court refused to comment. The sentencing Tuesday comes just hours after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao landed in the United States for an official visit in which China's human rights violations, especially its recent arrests of cyber-dissidents, are expected to be raised by US officials. The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy urged the United States Monday to use Wen's visit to step-up pressure on China to improve its human rights record. "We call on Bush to pressure Wen Jiabao to open up the Internet, allow religious freedom and allow workers to set up independent unions," the Center's director Frank Lu said in a statement. Yan was arrested in April after posting five essays on the Internet. One essay called for a reassessment of the June 4 1989 crackdown on student demonstrators on Tiananmen Square. Another asked the government to free former communist party general secretary Zhao Ziyang, who was deposed and placed under house arrest after he showed sympathy towards the students in 1989. Yan's other essays called for freedom of the press and of expression and for the government to allow workers to set up independent unions. He became famous in 1998 when he was among four dissidents in Xian arrested when former US president Bill Clinton visited the city as part of an official trip to China. The dissidents were released two days later. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues
US Military Mounts International Psyops Campaign
Washington (AFP) Dec 14, 2005The US military is mounting a 300 million dollar psychological operations campaign to sway international opinion of the US war on terrorism through messages placed in foreign media, officials said Wednesday. |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
