Four Reporters Without Borders activists released

Four Reporters Without Borders activists who were arrested by Dutch police in The Hague on 8 December were released after being held in separate cells for the legal maximum of six hours. They were arrested after they hung mock detour signs symbolically redirecting the Chinese delegation to the EU-China summit to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The signs were hung in front of the building where the summit was being held, at a road intersection which the Chinese delegation had passed a few minutes earlier. ______________________________________________________________ 08.11.2004 The Hague police detain four Reporters Without Borders activists in China protest Four Reporters Without Borders activists were detained by police in The Hague this morning just after they had displayed mock detour signs (see image below) symbolically redirecting a visiting delegation from China towards the International Criminal Court (ICC). The signs were unfurled outside the building where the Chinese delegation is participating in a summit with the European Union. The delegation had passed the intersection a few minutes before the arrests took place. The government of Premier Wen Jiabao, head of the Chinese delegation to The Hague, is responsible for massive and systematic crimes against freedom of expression, said the worldwide press freedom organisation. Its leaders should therefore present themselves before the ICC, for the international justice that the People's Republic has used every possible means to stifle. The organisation aims to draw the attention of European authorities and public opinion to the state of freedom of the press and expression on the Internet in China. At least 26 journalists and 62 cyberdissidents are currently imprisoned in the country. It earlier urged the European delegation, particularly European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, to call for the release of these prisoners of opinion and for an end to censorship of the press and Internet in China.