"What makes the jailing of Mr Li even more heinous, is that his disclosure of the outbreak of dengue fever was clearly in the public interest," said the Paris-based WAN and the WEF in a letter to Wang Xudong, Minister of Information Industry.

Mr Li, a journalist with the Fuzhou Daily, was convicted on 24 January of "spreading false and alarmist information" and sentenced to three years in prison. The charges relate to an article Mr Li published on the banned US-based website Boxun News exposing the dengue outbreak.

"We are seriously concerned at the government’s continuing campaign to censor news and silence undesirable views on the internet: up to 86 other journalists and Internet-users are reportedly detained in China, more than in any other country in the world," said WAN and the WEF, which called for the release of all jailed journalists.

The letter said:

"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 jailing of journalist Li Changqing for providing "alarmist information" to an overseas website.

"According to reports, on 24 January Mr Li, a journalist with the Fuzhou Daily, was jailed for three years by a court in Fuzhou for "spreading false and alarmist information". The charges related to an article Mr Li published on the banned US-based website Boxun News exposing an outbreak of dengue fever in Fujian province before the authorities officially announced it.

"Mr Li was previously detained in early 2005 after supporting whistleblower Huang Jingao. Mr Huang was sentenced to life in prison in November 2005 on corruption charges after he publicly exposed official misconduct in a letter to the People’s Daily newspaper.

"We are seriously concerned at the government’s continuing campaign to censor news and silence undesirable views on the internet: up to 86 other journalists and Internet-users are reportedly detained in China, more than in any other country in the world. What makes the jailing of Mr Li even more heinous, is that his disclosure of the outbreak of dengue fever was clearly in the public interest.

"We respectfully remind you that the jailing of Mr Li constitutes 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 do everything possible to ensure that Mr Li and all those detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression are immediately released from jail and that all criminal charges against them are dropped. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that in future your country fully observes international standards of freedom of expression."

For other recent protests, click here.

WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 73 national newspaper associations, newspapers and newspaper executives in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.

The WEF is the organisation for editors within the World Association of Newspapers (www.worldeditorsforum.org).

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr.