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SendDate of Expected Release: April 2015
When you sponsor him, you can
- put his picture in your newspaper on World Press Freedom Day
- write an article in your publication about his case. Reporters Without Borders will keep you updated on it.
- write a letter or organize a rally to ask for his release
- put his picture in your newspaper on World Press Freedom Day
- write an article in your publication about his case. Reporters Without Borders will keep you updated on it.
- write a letter or organize a rally to ask for his release
In April of 2005, Journalist Shi Tao of the Contemporary Business News Daily (Dangdai Shang Bao) was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for sending foreign-based websites the text of an internal message which the authorities had sent to his newspaper. The text was a warning of the dangers of social destabilisation and risks resulting from the return of certain dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tianemen Square Massacre.
Trial and Sentencing
His trial claimed the message to be top Secret (Jue Mi), but this is largely seen as a fabrication. The trial is emblematic of even deeper problems since much of the information for his arrest is known to have been provided by Yahoo! Holdings Lmtd, the international media conglomerate, and just one of many corporations that have opted to side with the censors of the Chinese government. In August 2007, the United States congress decided to investigate Yahoo’s role in the conviction, which it criticised for "covering up despicable practices".
Tao is still being held in a prison in Changsha to which he was sent after his arrest in the northeastern city of Taiyuan on 24 November 2004.
Yahoo!’s Complicity in Shi Tao’s Sentencing
More Information on Internet Business in China
A letter from the HRIC and RWB to former President Bill Clinton
Beijing State Security Bureau- Notice of Evidence Collection
Sign the Petition calling for Tao’s release
Read More about China
