The Wei Jingsheng Foundation received appeals from friends inside of China, calling for the attention of the recently detained journalist Jie Mu. The following is the summary and the latest updates about Mr. Sun Lin, whose pen name is Jie Mu. He is a reporter inside of China for BoXun News Agency, which was considering as a hostile news agency by the Chinese government.
He was arrested on May 30 with his wife, Ms. He Fang, in JiangSu Province. Since then, his wife was released. However, there is no news about him yet, even his lawyer could not access him so far.
Before Jie Mu, there has never been an average Chinese citizen who, with a camcorder and a “hostile foreign TV” station's microphone and gone out among average people and interviewed them. Jie Mu, along with some colleagues from BoXun, went also to Tiananmen Square to conduct interviews. Jie Mu and his colleagues are in an effort to establish an example for Chinese people: every citizen is a reporter; everyone has the right to interview and report the truth of the matter.
Media freedom is the bottleneck on the path to Chinese democracy and freedom, Jie Mu is clear about this. He has chosen to take up an undertaking that is of the greatest value. He put up the money to buy a car, to buy a camcorder, and to pay for his travel expenses to report for an Overseas TV station on the suffering of the Chinese people; specifically on the violent demolition of homes, city management striking citizens, and the inside story on social welfare coupons and greedy officials, that after reporting on the violent demolition of homes in Yangzhou a hitman was sent after Jie Mu to assassinate him.
Jie Mu reported on what was going on behind the scenes and angered the local interest groups, so they spread words that they would teach him a lesson; but the people organized themselves outside Jie Mu's house to protect his safety.
Jie Mu used to work for a government TV station, because his "speech was too extreme" he was dismissed. Jie Mu also started his own magazine, but the government closed him down. Jie Mu was previously wealthy, but in the end he gave up business to become a citizen reporter. Jie Mu once donated money for the hunger strike students of 1989 democracy movement, for this he was punished. But that did not change his mind at all. Since he was young Jie Mu has been through much hardship, he served in the army as a martial arts expert. He previously met with injustice when he faced a gang of bully police, in the end the police pulled gun. They sent Jie Mu to a labor camp.
Jie Mu's father participated in the Long March, so his connections with high-level officials are not few. Yet Jie Mu chose to resolutely push for press freedom without concern for his personal safety. Jie Mu's older sister and her husband (both cadres of the public security bureau) were coerced by local officials to persuade Jie Mu to submit, but Jie Mu refused. Jie Mu's wife He Fang, supports her husband just as before, to the point that she would even be detained with him.
We wish the international society pay the attention on the fate of Jie Mu, an outstanding representative for a free press in China.
(As of June 24, 2007. The Wei Jingsheng Foundation is responsible for the translation of this English version, and is grateful to the contribution from Mr. Cao Gen and Mr. Cao Xia.)
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