Government urged to free Ching Cheong on 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China

Reporters Without Borders today urged the Chinese authorities to release imprisoned journalist Ching Cheong as a “significant gesture” towards the journalistic community in Hong Kong on the 10th anniversary of the return of the former British colony to China. “The release of the ailing Ching would go some way towards reassuring Hong Kong's journalists about their freedom of expression and movement,” the press freedom organisation said. “Freeing this journalist is a precondition for any improvement in relations between the central government and Hong Kong's independent press.” The Hong Kong-based correspondent of Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, Ching was sentenced on 31 August 2006 to five years in prison and a fine of 60,000 euros. The holder of a “British National Overseas” passport and a permanent resident of Singapore, Ching had been arrested by the Chinese police on 22 April 2005 while visiting Guangzhou. Following his arrest, Ching was put under house arrest in Beijing in August 2005 while the Chinese authorities launched a smear campaign against him to justify the postponement of his trial and his extended detention. He was accused of spying for Taiwan. The official news agency Xinhua published a report claiming the Ching sold business, political and military information to Taiwanese agents for millions of dollars between 2000 and 2005. In fact, Ching had gone to Guangzhou to get information about the late Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who had still been under house arrest at the time of his death in January 2005. Zhao's “crime” was to have negotiated with pro-democracy demonstrators during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Ching's wife, Mary Lau Man-yee, herself a journalist, has always denied the spying allegations. The authorities in Beijing invited her to visit her husband, but she declined for fear of being arrested herself. Ching appealed against his sentence on 8 September 2006. Reporters Without Borders participated with 20 other human rights organisations in a day of action in support of Ching on 20 July 2006. More than 20,000 people have signed a petition for Ching's release which Reporters Without Borders and the Hong Kong Journalists Association launched in May 2005. It is available at wwww.petition-chingcheong.org