【禁闻】2014全球220记者被捕 中国最多

2014年12月19日社会
【新唐人2014年12月19日讯】总部在纽约的“保护记者委员会”,17号发布了年度全球新闻自由状况的报告,报告认为,今年全球新闻自由状况糟糕,而中国是世界上监禁记者最多的国家。同时观察人士表示,当局今年对媒体人士的控制,也有一些新的动向。

“保护记者委员会”的报告表示,今年全球有220名记者被捕,是该组织从1990年开始这项调查以来,第二恶劣的年度,反映出专制政权崛起的全球趋势,而中国大陆情况最糟糕,是2014年记者遭监禁最多的国家。

报告统计,中国被监禁的记者,从去年的32位跃升到今年的44位。其中,有29人是以“反政府”罪名遭到监禁,显示现任当局对媒体、律师、异议人士和学术界的言论尺度日趋紧缩。

而44人里,有将近一半是藏人或维吾尔人,包括学者、“维吾尔在线”网站创办人伊力哈木•土赫提,以及帮助他维护网站的7名学生。

但知名新媒体推动者北风指出,实际上被监禁或拘留的记者,远不止44名。

知名新媒体推动者北风:“在2014年抓了,然后拘留超过一个月时间,然后又放了的那些,并没有统计在内。他们的统计办法,是在九月份或十月份的某个时间点,还在牢里的统计。所以说,被政府抓,或者刑事拘留的记者,其实要远远超过‘保护记者委员会’统计的数字。”

而“自由亚洲电台”引述“保护记者委员会”亚洲部主任迪亚兹的话说,2014年中国的新闻自由状况尤其糟糕之外,还有一个新的动向。

“保护记者委员会”亚洲部主任迪亚兹:“今年中国政府监禁记者的人数是我们在1990年开始统计以来人数最多的一年,过去常常是维族或者藏族人因为办网站或者写博客文章而被投进监狱,而现在我们看到一些主流媒体的记者也因为触犯敏感问题而遭到监禁。这反映出中国政府对新闻业的管制更加严格,而不是过去那种仅仅严格控制异议人士言论的做法。”

北风也表示,今年当局在行政手段外,进一步动用了司法手段控制媒体人士。

北风:“去年四月份九号文件,也就是‘七不准’在反意识形态斗争以来,其实是全面加紧对中国新闻媒体的控制。这种控制不仅包括传统的,用行政命令的方式,加强内容的审查和事后的追惩,其实也包括进一步动用司法的手段,对记者、编辑、自由作家进行迫害。”

今年受到国际关注的中国被捕的媒体人士,包括记者高瑜、财新传媒文化编辑徐晓、以及大陆作家铁流等等。81岁的铁流被怀疑是因为在网上发表批评中共政治局常委、前中宣部部长刘云山的文章,而被当局以“寻衅滋事罪”被正式起诉、批准逮捕。

原陕西电视台记者马晓明:“他主要就是,一个是惩治这些‘离经叛道’,不执行他们新闻控制的这些编辑记者,再一个就是为了警示其他的编辑记者。”

“保护记者委员会”的报告说,除监禁记者外,北京也实施新法令,限制采访范畴以及拒绝核发国际记者签证。

除了中国大陆以外,另外9个监禁记者最严重的国家,依次是伊朗、厄立特里亚、衣索比亚、越南,埃及和叙利亚并列第六,之后是缅甸、亚塞拜然、和土耳其。这些国家大多位处非洲、中东及亚洲,有些国家战乱频传,有些是威权体制。

而“记者无疆界”16号在巴黎发表的2014年新闻记者年报,也指责中国是逮捕囚禁记者最多的国家。报告说,中国关押职业记者的人数,占全世界的17%,关押公民记者的人数,则占全球的44%。

采访/陈汉 编辑/尚燕

220 Journalists Arrested Worldwide in 2014 China ranked

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ),
headquartered at New York City,
released its annual global press freedom report on Dec.17.

The report says, the global press freedom situation is worse,
while China has the most imprisoned journalists in the world.

Meanwhile, observers say the authorities have
some new trends for controlling the media this year.

The CPJ Report says that this year, worldwide, a total
of 220 journalists have been arrested.

According to the survey, since the year 1990, 2014 is the
second to worst year, reflecting a worldwide trend
in authoritarian regimes exerting their powers.

China has been labelled as having the worst statistics
for most imprisoned journalists in 2014.

The report says that China imprisoned 44 journalists
in 2014 which jumped from 32 in last year.

Among them, 29 were sentenced to jail
with the charges of "anti-government",

and this shows the incumbent authorities increasingly
tightening the speech censoring of media,
lawyers, dissidents and academics.

Among 44 confined journalists, nearly half are Tibetan
or Uighurs including scholar Ilham Tohti,

who is the co-founder of Uighurbiz website, including his
seven students who help him to maintain the website.

But well-known media promoter Bei Feng says,
in fact the number of imprisoned or detained
journalists is far more than 44.

Bei Feng:"Those journalists who were caught in 2014,
then detained for over a month and finally released,
they are not included.

Their statistical method in counting the total number
of jailed journalists is at some time between
September or October.

So, the authentic number of journalists being caught
or detained are in fact far more than the statistical
figures of CPJ."

"Radio Free Asia" quoted what CPJ Asia director Diaz said,
and reported that in 2014,

the situation of Chinese press freedom is particularly bad.
In addition to this, there is a new trend occuring.

CPJ Asia director Diaz: "This year the number of imprisoned
journalists by the Chinese authorities,

is the highest since we began keeping records in 1990.

In the past, Uighur or Tibetan people were jailed due to their
sponsoring websites or writing blog articles.

But now we see some mainstream media journalists
also imprisoned for breaching sensitive topics.

This reflects the Chinese government executes
more stringent controls upon journalism,

rather than only the past practice for strictly controlling
the dissident speech."

Bei Feng also said that this year, in addition to applying
administrative means to regulate media professionals,

the Chinese authorities utilises judicial means
to control the media professionals even further.

Bei Feng: "The official document issued on April 9,
includes 'seven prohibitions', fully tightening
their control over Chinese media.

Such control includes not only traditional administrative orders,

which strengthens the content censoring and punishment,

but also the means of justice against journalists, editors
and freelance writers."

Included in the arrests of Chinese journalists this year are,
Gao Yu, Xu Xiao media culture editor for Caixin
and mainland writer Tie Liu.

Tie Liu who is 81-years of age, has been formally charged
and approved for the arrest of the crime affray.

It is believed Tie published online articles criticising Liu Yunshan,
the incumbent Politburo Standing Committee member
and former Minister of the Central Propaganda Department.

Former Shaanxi TV reporter Ma Xiaoming: "The CCP's target
of confining journalists is to punish these 'deviant' guys,
who do not carry out the censorship policy.

This allows CCP to alert other editors and reporters."

The report of CJP says that, in addition to confining
the journalists,

Beijing has also implemented new laws to restrict the scope
of the interview and also refusing to issue visa's
to international journalists.

In addition to China, there are nine other countries who have
severely imprisoned journalists,

including Iran, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Egypt and Syria
(tied sixth), Myanmar, Azerbaijan and Turkey (by sequence).

Most of these countries are located in Africa,
Middle East and Asia.

Some countries experience frequent wars and chaos,
some are authoritarian regimes.

The "Reporters Without Borders" published a 2014 Round-Up
of Violence Against Journalists in Paris
on Dec.16th,

which also states that China has the biggest imprisoned journalists
in the world.

The report says, the jailed journalists in China accounts for
17 percent of the world, and the jailed citizen-journalists
accounted for 44 percent of the world.

Interview/ChenHan Edit/ShangYan