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China ranked ‘worst’ jailer of writers

The communist nation topped the Freedom to Write Index for the fourth consecutive year
Police attempt to stop journalists from recording footage outside the Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court, where Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was on trial in 2020

Police attempt to stop journalists from recording footage outside the Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court, where Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was on trial in 2020. (Photo: Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images)

Published: April 28, 2023 11:06 AM GMT
Updated: April 28, 2023 11:12 AM GMT

New York-based PEN America ranked China as the ‘worst’ jailer of writers in its latest Freedom to Write Index.

The group advocating freedom of expression counted 90 cases of writers behind bars in China with six new cases added last year, according to the index published on April 27.

China has topped the index for the fourth consecutive year, the index showed.

“China’s leader Xi Jinping began a historic third term as leader of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in October 2022, consolidating political power and signaling that tightened restrictions on free expression would continue,” PEN America said in a statement.

The group noted that despite tightening controls public anger mounting from strict Covid-19 lockdowns grew in China last year. Amid protests, activist Peng Lifa unfurled banners calling on Xi to resign.

“His solitary act and slogans inspired members of the Chinese diaspora and expatriates to start a poster campaign in cities around the world,” the statement said.

The group said that “in China, virtually all aspects of cultural production are under the control of the state, and engaging in independent creative work involves grave risk.”

The report also noted that writers and residents in troubled Hong Kong faced different political and legal challenges to their mainland counterparts.

Last year, nine Hong Kong writers were in custody, who were mostly arrested after Beijing-imposed national security law was enacted in 2020.

“Authorities in Hong Kong ignored a call from the UN in July to repeal the [security law] and the now increasingly applied colonial-era sedition law to target critical expression. Journalists, writers, book publishers, and social media commentators have been arrested for sedition and other crimes,” the report said.

Mainland China has similar laws to silence and punish dissidents. The security law in the former British colony was imposed to snuff out a strong pro-democracy movement, alarming democracy advocates, civil society groups, and trade partners, it pointed out.

Hong Kong authorities claim the law is necessary to maintain stability and peace and only affects a small group of people.

PEN America reported that 311 writers and reporters were jailed globally last year.

China is followed by Iran with the jailing of 57 writers, Saudi Arabia with 20 jailed writers, and Belarus, Myanmar, and Vietnam, each with 16 reporters behind bars.

China’s constitution guarantees “freedom of speech" but the Communist regime is considered among the worst violators of freedom of expression.

China ranked 175th out of 180 in the 2022 Reporters Without Border World Press Freedom Index and was dubbed as “the world’s largest captor of journalists.”

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