Premier Wen Jiabao
State Council of the People’s Republic of China
Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Email: english@mail.gov.cn

5 July 2006

Dear Premier Wen,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at plans to introduce a law that will impose heavy fines on journalists for reporting on “emergency incidents”.

According to reports, on 3 July the State Council announced its intention to introduce legislation this year that will impose fines of up to 100,000 yuan (about US$12,500) on Chinese and foreign journalists who release information before the government on emergency incidents, or whose inaccurate reporting about such events leads to “serious consequences”. Such incidents include natural disasters, accidents, public health hazards as well as national security incidents such as riots or large demonstrations.

We are seriously concerned that this legislation will undermine the role of the press to inform the public and lead to even greater self-censorship than already exists. We are also concerned at suggestions that local officials, who may have the most to gain from stifling media coverage of emergencies, will be empowered to determine the accuracy of a report and the fine to be imposed.

We respectfully remind you that, if enacted, this law would constitute a clear breach of the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: ’Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.’

We respectfully call on you to take all necessary steps to ensure that the proposed legislation is withdrawn and to ensure that in future your country fully observes international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.