Journalists Imprisoned in 2017 - Liu Wei'an
| Publisher | Committee to Protect Journalists |
| Publication Date | 31 December 2017 |
| Cite as | Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Imprisoned in 2017 - Liu Wei'an, 31 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a5c938012.html [accessed 1 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Freelance | Imprisoned in China | June 05, 2013
| Job: | Internet Reporter |
| Medium: | Internet |
| Beats Covered: | Business, Corruption |
| Gender: | Male |
| Local or Foreign: | Local |
| Freelance: | Yes |
| Charge: | Retaliatory |
| Length of Sentence: | 10+ years |
| Reported Health Problems: | No |
The Shaoguan People's Procuratorate, a state legal body, issued a statement in June 2013 that said Liu and Hu Yazhu had been arrested in Guangdong province after confessing to accepting bribes while covering events in the northern city of Shaoguan.
Hu and Liu were sentenced to 13 years and 14 years in prison respectively in June 2014 for accepting bribes and for extortion, according to Shaoguan Daily, a government-run newspaper.
Liu, a freelance writer, and Hu, a staff reporter for the official Guangdong Communist Party newspaper Nanfang Daily, had both written articles published in 2011 in Nanfang Daily and on news websites about a dispute involving the illegal extraction of rare minerals in Shaoguan, according to news reports.
The prosecutors' statement said Hu and Liu accepted 493,000 yuan (about US$82,200) in bribes. The pair were stripped of their press cards and banned from journalism for life, according to the state-run paper China Daily.
Users on Weibo, China's microblog service, said they suspected the reporters' arrests were in retaliation for their reports that exposed problems in the government and judiciary.
Details of the journalists' whereabouts were not included in local reports about their case. CPJ could not determine the state of their health in late 2017.
