Premier Wen Jiabao
State Council of the People’s Republic of China
Beijing, People’s Republic of China

7 January 2008

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 the arrest of writer Wang Dejia.

According to reports, Mr Wang, who uses the pen-name of Jing Chu, was arrested at his home in Guilin, Guangxi, on 13 December and charged with “subverting state authority”. He was arrested when police searched his home in the Quanzhou Chengbei district of Guilin on the afternoon of 13 December, removing articles, books and his computer. His family reportedly said that he was accused of defamation and taken to the Quanzhou Chengbei police station. His brother and his cousin went to the police station, but were not allowed to see him.

We are concerned that Mr Wang’s arrest might be linked to his criticism of China’s hosting of the Beijing Olympics. He recently wrote and posted several articles on the Minzhu Luntan (Democracy Forum) and the Aboluowang forum, carrying such headlines as “Illegal possession of state secrets: a Communist Party invention for persecuting prisoners of conscience”. In that article, Mr Wang wrote: “The manacled Olympic Games will bring the public nothing but misfortune. With journalist Li Yuanlong sentenced to two years for four articles, how much will I get?”

Mr Wang also recently gave an interview to the Epoch Times, a media group backed by the banned sect Falun Gong, in which he claimed that the Olympics would exacerbate the sufferings of Chinese people and leave them “living like dogs and pigs”. Mr Wang blamed the “autocratic nation” for destroying ordinary people’s homes in mass demolitions in order to build grandiose Olympic venues, and criticised China’s intensified crackdown on dissidents.

Mr Wang’s family reportedly suspect that his arrest might also be related to a meeting he held with US embassy representatives in October to discuss human rights.

Mr Wang is not the only writer or journalist facing prosecution in China.

We respectfully remind you that last month we awarded the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom 2008 to Chinese journalist Li Changqing. Mr Li was sentenced to prison for three years in January 2006 for breaking a story on an outbreak of dengue fever that authorities would have preferred to keep secret. It is the second consecutive year that a Chinese journalist has received the award, an unprecedented decision that reflects concern about the conditions for media in China. As China prepares to host the Olympics next summer, these repressive conditions are coming under growing international scrutiny, as the lack of promised reforms made by China when it proposed to host the Games.

According to reports, at least 30 journalists and 50 cyber-dissidents are currently held in Chinese prisons.

We respectfully remind you that the detention of Mr Wang is a clear breach of his 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 Mr Wang, Mr Li, Mr Shi and all other journalists detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression are immediately released from prison.

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.