[huridocs-tech] Chinese man sentenced to 11 years for downloading articles

DIGITAL FREEDOM NETWORK: Human rights and cyber-rights news

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chinese man sentenced to 11 years for downloading articles
by Bobson Wong, Digital Freedom Network
URL: www.dfn.org/news/china/lidawei.htm

(August 5, 2002) A Chinese court sentenced a former police officer to 11 years in 
prison for downloading articles from the Internet, a human rights group announced 
yesterday.

Li Dawei, a former police officer from Gansu province in northern China, was 
arrested in April 2002 and later charged with using the Internet to overthrow the 
Chinese government, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human 
Rights and Democracy. 

Li was accused of downloading 500 "reactionary" articles from the Internet and 
publishing them in 10 books. He was also accused of communicating with 
overseas "reactionaries" by phone and e-mail. 

The Center said that on July 24, the Tianshui Intermediate People's Court sentenced 
Li to 11 years in prison. A court in Gansu had reportedly accepted an appeal from Li 
but had not set a hearing date. 

To date, at least 26 individuals are being detained by China for using the Internet 
for political or religious purposes. (The complete list is available at 
http://dfn.org/focus/china/netattack.htm .) The Digital Freedom Network has been 
unable to determine their status.

Many Chinese officials view the Internet not only as a valuable tool for 
communication and commerce. According to reports from the China Internet Network 
Information Center, the number of Internet users in the country grew to 45.8 million 
users by July 2002. Many studies indicate that the number of Net users in China is 
roughly doubling every year or two. Even if these studies exaggerate the number of 
users, there are clear indications of rapid Internet growth in China.

Such growth concerns officials also view the Internet as a potential threat to 
social stability. Many overseas sites — over 500,000, according to one report — are 
banned for their "subversive" content. Through a combination of national firewalls; 
tough laws aimed at users, Webmasters, and Internet service providers; and voluntary 
codes of conduct, China has encouraged an online culture of self-censorship in which 
taboo topics, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and human rights, are 
rarely discussed.
 

Copyright (c) 2002 Digital Freedom Network (http://dfn.org). All rights reserved. 
This article may be reproduced or redistributed for online not-for-profit use 
without prior written consent as long as DFN is recognized with this credit. For 
information about DFN's permissions policy, see 
<http://dfn.org/about/permissions.htm>.




========== HURIDOCS-Tech listserv ==========
Send mail intended for the list to <huridocs-tech@hrea.org>.
Archives of the list can be found at:
http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/maillist.php
To subscribe to the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>,
with the following text in the message: subscribe huridocs-tech
To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>,
with the following text in the message: unsubscribe huridocs-tech
If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact <owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org>.