FCCC reiterates call for Zhao Yan and Ching Cheong to be released

Recently an appeals court upheld the original three-year sentence for the New York Times Beijing Bureau’s Chinese researcher Zhao Yan on charges of fraud; no new evidence was presented. The previous week, a Beijing higher court upheld the five-year prison sentence on espionage charges for Ching Cheong, China correspondent of Singapore’s Straits Times. (Both journalists have denied the charges.) Both cases were marked by a lack of transparency and have fallen short of international standards. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China reiterates its call for the release of Zhao Yan and Ching Cheong, as spelled out in an FCCC letter delivered to the Chinese Foreign Ministry last year after the original convictions were made public. Text:

June 3, 2005

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China is deeply distressed by the recent trials and imprisonments of Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong journalist working for the Straits Times newspaper of Singapore and Zhao Yan, an employee of The New York Times.

Mr. Ching is a well-known and respected journalist who has covered Greater China for 30-plus years. His five-year conviction on spying charges without a single piece of evidence presented publicly in support of the charges sends a disturbing message to all correspondents in China.

Mr. Zhao works for one of the world's most respected news organizations. His three-year conviction on fraud charges in a closed trial with no defence witnesses raises grave concerns about the rule of law in China.

From arrest to detention to trial, the treatment of both defendants has fallen short of international standards of justice. There has been no transparency in proceedings and no consistency in the implementation of law. Amid frequent reports of detentions and harassment of foreign correspondents and Chinese citizens who assist them, these cases are being seen internationally as an attempt to intimidate news organizations in China.

In the absence of due process, we believe the legal proceedings were flawed and urge that Zhao and Ching be released. Such cases damage China's international reputation, create unease among our members and overshadow progress that has been made in other areas of Chinese society.