Newspaperindex - the blog | Newspapers of the world, media, free speech and update on the newspaper catalogue Newspaper Index » Journalist who was driven mad in prison freed after 16 years

Journalist who was driven mad in prison freed after 16 years

Friday February 24th 2006, 1:37 pm
Filed under: Newspapers

Reporters Without Borders notes the release of arts critic, Yu Dongyue, imprisoned after the June 1989 student demonstrations, who has left jail a broken man, driven mad after being tortured and held for long periods in solitary confinement. And in an act which the press freedom organisation described as ‘the last word in cynicism’ the authorities have just re-arrested his former student companion, Yu Zhijian, for ’subversion’. Yu Dongyue, now 38, left prison in Hunan southern China on 22 February. Yu has very serious mental problems after spending at least six months in a cell measuring less than 3 metres square, followed by two years in solitary confinement. He was regularly tortured. Journalist and art critic on Liuyang News, Yu was sentenced to 20 years in prison and five years loss of political rights on 11 July 1989 on charges of ’sabotage’ and ‘counter-revolutionary propaganda’. The authorities were also displeased by his articles in support of free expression and for his avant-garde opinions on artistic matters. His two friends, Lu Decheng and Yu Zhijian, who were with him on 23 May 1989, had already been freed earlier. But Yu Zhijian has just been rearrested for taking part in a rotating hunger strike in support of a human rights lawyer being threatened by the government. (Reporters Without Borders,February 24, 2006)

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.