Beijing
Reuters
—
A Beijing courtroom sentenced veteran Chinese language state media journalist Dong Yuyu on Friday to seven years in jail for espionage, a circle of relatives member advised Reuters.
Former Guangming Day-to-day editor and journalist Dong Yuyu, 62, was once detained through police in Beijing in February 2022 whilst having lunch with a Eastern diplomat, in step with a remark from the United States Nationwide Press Membership, and later charged with espionage.
There was once a heavy police presence out of doors Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate Other folks’s Court docket, with a minimum of seven police vehicles parked within sight. Reuters reporters had been requested to go away the realm.
A US diplomat advised Reuters that they’d been barred from attending the listening to.
Dong has been detained in a Beijing jail looking forward to the decision since a closed-court listening to in July 2023, the clicking membership mentioned in September.
He ceaselessly had in-person exchanges with overseas diplomats from quite a lot of embassies and reporters. The Eastern diplomat he met was once additionally detained for a number of hours, triggering a robust criticism from the Eastern overseas ministry.
A Chinese language overseas ministry spokesperson mentioned on the time that the diplomat was once engaged in actions “inconsistent with their capability” in China. The diplomat was once later launched.
Dong participated within the prestigious Harvard Nieman Fellowship and was once a visiting student and visiting professor at Keio College and Hokkaido College in Japan, in step with a circle of relatives remark in April 2023.
He joined the Communist Celebration-affiliated Guangming Day-to-day in 1987 after graduating from Peking College regulation college, and was once the deputy editor of its statement phase.
He had written opinion articles in Chinese language media and liberal educational journals on subjects from felony reforms to social problems, and co-edited a ebook selling the rule of thumb of regulation in China. His articles advocated reasonable reforms whilst warding off direct grievance of Chinese language chief Xi Jinping.
His circle of relatives had to start with saved information of his detention personal within the hope that fees may well be lowered or dropped however had been notified in March 2023 that his case can be despatched to trial, their remark mentioned.
A couple of press freedom non-government organizations (NGO) have referred to as for his free up. A web based petition for his free up has amassed over 700 signatures from reporters, lecturers and NGO staff.
“Dong Yuyu is a skilled reporter and creator whose paintings has lengthy been revered through colleagues at house and out of the country,” mentioned Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Basis for Journalism at Harvard College. “We stand with many in hoping for his free up and go back to his circle of relatives.”
The Australian creator and pro-democracy blogger Yang Hengjun was once passed a suspended dying sentence on espionage fees through a Beijing courtroom in February.
