China still keeping dark secrets

Sixteen years ago, the world watched as several thousand Chinese students, along with their teachers and supporters, risked their lives in the name of democracy. Standing in the middle of Tiananmen Square, hundreds - perhaps thousands - were massacred when Chinese authorities ordered troops and tanks to silence the protests on June 4, 1989.

China is a different place now. The society has evolved as its economy rapidly expands. But the government refuses to acknowledge the bloody Tiananmen massacre and continues to suppress the voices of the nation's 1.3-billion citizens with attempts to silence journalists, scholars and dissidents. As the world is swept up in China's emergence, we can't neglect the nation's other story - the one where basic freedoms are denied and human rights are ignored.

Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, who works for Singapore's Straits Times , has been detained since April on state secrets charges. He reportedly entered China to obtain drafts of interviews with a former Communist Party leader who criticized the government's Tiananmen crackdown. Chinese authorities said last week that the reporter confessed to being a paid spy for a foreign intelligence service, but his wife is protesting such claims.

He's the third journalist this year to face imprisonment in China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. At the end of 2004, 42 journalists were in China prisons for practicing their craft - the highest total for any country for the sixth straight year. Zhao Yan, a Chinese researcher for the New York Times , has been detained since September and now is standing trial for fraud and leaking state secrets.

Such charges are punishable by death, a sentencing that sends a chilling message to the nation's 150,000 domestic journalists and more than 480 foreign reporters based in China: China still has many dark secrets to hide.

For all its sparkling dreams of leading the world in the 21st century, China's strict censors shatter the prospects of the still developing society. China claims to fully guarantee journalists' rights to report if they don't violate laws and regulations. But the laws are too vague and the government continues to implement more repressive guidelines.

Freedom of expression is a fundamental right protected by the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But this privilege only is guaranteed to 20 percent of the world's citizens. That leaves courageous souls risking their lives to shed light on dark places in hopes that their words will live in print and help make sense of this world. It leaves prominent Lebanese journalist Samir Qassir killed in a car bombing outside his home. It leaves journalists in Zimbabwe facing intimidation, arrests, censorship and jail time. It leaves dozens in China locked behind bars.

All in the name of journalism, in the quest of the truth.

[Last modified June 7, 2005, 02:15:48]