The two journalists had published a report alleging corruption by a local official in southwestern China, rights group RSF said, adding that the case shows how hostile the country has become to independent reporting.<\/p>\n
Two independent journalists were detained by local authorities after they published a report alleging corruption by a local official in southwestern China, rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday, condemning the incident.<\/p>\n
Police in Chengdu said they were investigating a 50-year-old man surnamed Liu and a 34-year-old surnamed Wu on suspicion of making “false accusations” and conducting “illegal business operations.”<\/p>\n
Authorities said they were placed under “criminal coercive measures,” a term typically referring to detention.<\/p>\n
Chinese media and RSF identified the two journalists as Liu Hu and Wu Yingjiao.<\/p>\n
The detentions followed publication of an online report examining alleged corruption involving Pu Fayou, Pujiang county Communist Party secretary in Sichuan, and other county officials.<\/p>\n
The article has since been removed from the social media platform WeChat.<\/p>\n
‘China treats independent journalists as a threat’<\/p>\n
RSF, the Paris-based advocacy group, said the case underscored an increasingly hostile environment for independent reporting in China.<\/p>\n
“Anyone who dares to investigate malpractice by the Chinese regime is swiftly persecuted by the authorities,” RSF’s Taipei-based advocacy manager Aleksandra Bielakowska said in a statement to news agency AFP.<\/p>\n
China ranks 178th out of 180 countries in RSF’s press freedom index and is the world’s “biggest jailer of journalists,” the group said.<\/p>\n
“Under [Chinese President] Xi Jinping’s leadership, control over information has tightened to near-totalitarian levels, with independent journalists treated as a threat to the state”, Bielakowska said.<\/p>\n
Liu, an investigative journalist, was previously arrested in 2013 for alleged defamation, but later released on bail after spending 364 days in detention, according to RSF.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong journalists fighting censorship, crackdown To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video<\/p>\n
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher<\/p>\n
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