Li Changqing, a Chinese journalist who went to prison for reporting on a health threat before Chinese authorities announced it has been awarded the 2008 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers.

It is the second consecutive year that a Chinese journalist has received the award, an unprecedented decision that reflects the repressive conditions for media in China. The 2007 laureate was Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist who was imprisoned after the American search engine company Yahoo provided information to the Chinese authorities that led to his arrest.

The award to Li Chongqing, who was released from prison in February after serving three years for reporting on an outbreak of dengue fever, marked the second consecutive year that the annual award has gone to a Chinese journalist. It was the first time since WAN created the award in 1961 that journalists from the same country have won it in consecutive years.

Mr Li was unable to obtain a passport and could not attend the award ceremony, held on 2 June in Göteborg, Sweden. His wife, Bao Dinling, was stopped at the airport in Beijing and prevented by Chinese authorities from attending.

But in remarks read by Li Jianhong, a writer who has been persecuted and arrested and forced to leave China, Mr Li said: “I am deeply aware that this is not an honour only to me in particular, but also an award in general to all of my colleagues who are bravely devoting themselves to freedom of expression, especially those in China.”

“The facts that Chinese journalists have gotten the Golden Pen of Freedom Award two years in succession, and that China has become the world’s largest jailer of the journalists, have shown that the current situation of free expression in China is of growing concern to the whole world,” he said. “China is a land that needs to be travelled with the voices of conscience and a nation that needs to be saved by the truth.”

The award was presented by George Brock, President of the World Editors Forum, during the opening ceremonies of the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum, the annual global meetings of the world’s press.

“The award was made on the individual merits of Mr Li’s case. He went to jail for exposing a serious outbreak of a dangerous disease before the authorities had told the public about it. The Golden Pen of Freedom recognises Mr Li’s brave conduct in revealing significant facts in the public interest,” said Mr. Brock.

“But Mr Li’s case also belongs in a context. China has the dubious distinction of being the world’s biggest jailer of journalists,” he said. “Despite the promises it made in its successful Olympic bid to improve conditions for journalists, China has continued its repressive policies, cynically believing that neither the Olympic movement nor the international community expects them to honour their promises of reform.”

At least 30 journalists and 50 cyber-dissidents remain in Chinese prisons.

Mr Li, who was freed from prison on 2 February, was a reporter and deputy news director of the Fuzhou Daily in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. He was sentenced to prison in January 2006, for "fabricating and spreading false information", after being detained without charges for nearly a year. The charges stem from a report on the 2004 outbreak of dengue fever in Fuzhou that was posted on Boxun News Network, a Chinese-language website based in the United States.

Due to censorship and restrictions imposed by the Communist Party Propaganda Department on sensitive social issues, no reports of the outbreak in Fuzhou of dengue, a viral, mosquito-borne disease, had been reported in the Chinese press. Nor had health officials officially announced the outbreak.

“In most countries, he would be celebrated and honoured for this work,” said Mr Brock. “In China, disclosing such facts is an imprisonable offence.”

Mr Li said being a journalist in China “is full of risks. To be a good journalist, one does not only need wisdom but needs moral courage even more.”

Mr Li’s full remarks can be read at http://www.wan-press.org/article173...

Mr Brock’s remarks can be found at http://www.wan-press.org/article173...

China is one of the world’s largest jailers of journalists, with about 40 behind bars. Other journalists have been harassed, detained, threatened or dismissed from their jobs because of their reporting. Media outlets are forbidden to promote political reform, cover internal party politics or the inner workings of the government, criticise Beijing’s domestic and international policies, or reporting financial data that the government has not released. Because all stories are potentially subject to pre-publication censorship, many reporters avoid certain topics or otherwise practice self-censorship.

WAN, the global association of the newspaper industry, has awarded the Golden Pen annually since 1961. Past winners include Argentina’s Jacobo Timerman (1980), South Africa’s Anthony Heard (1986), China’s Dai Qing (1992), Vietnam’s Doan Viet Hoat (1998), Zimbabwe’s Geoffrey Nyarota (2002), and Iran’s Akbar Ganji (2006).