The Chinese journalist turned anti-corruption blogger has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for criticising the Communist Party.
Chen Jieren, who was highly critical of the role of certain Communist Party leaders in Hunan in graft cases in his blogs, was arrested in 2018. On Thursday, a court in the southern province jailed him for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” extortion, blackmail and bribery, in what one human rights group said was an attempt to “punish him for his political speech on WeChat and other social media platforms,” said media reports.
The verdict said, Chen had “attacked and vilified the Communist Party and government” by publishing “false information” and “malicious speculation.” China is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and tightly controls the press at home while censoring most foreign media outlets via the Great Firewall, its vast online censorship and surveillance apparatus.
Meanwhile, a Hong Kong-based NGO, Chinese Human Rights Defenders said Chen’s sentence “sends a chilling signal to online independent commentators and citizen journalists.”
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