RSF appalled by harassment of journalist Gao Yu's family
| Publisher | Reporters Without Borders |
| Publication Date | 31 March 2016 |
| Cite as | Reporters Without Borders, RSF appalled by harassment of journalist Gao Yu's family, 31 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/570222244.html [accessed 21 May 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. |
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns today's raid on well-known journalist Gao Yu's Beijing home by about 20 plainclothes policemen, who destroyed her garden and roughed up her son, Zhao Meng.
This latest example of the now frequent harassment of the families of journalists and bloggers critical of the Communist Party was carried out after the Beijing municipal authorities said that the garden, and the small wall built on the edge of the garden, were illegal.
The 20 policemen, from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of City Administration and Law Enforcement, were dispatched to supervise the wall's destruction and send an intimidatory message. During the operation, Gao Yu remained inside the house, accompanied by relatives, friends and fellow journalists.
"This act of aggression by the police, in plain clothes as usual, speaks volumes about the methods used by the Communist Party to intimidate Gao Yu, those close to her and Chinese civil society in general," said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk.
"We again call on the international community to adopt concrete measures against those who instigated this harassment, starting with police chief Li Runhua. And we urge all defenders of freedom of information to support Gao Yu by writing directly to the Beijing police."
RSF is providing the URL of the Beijing police web page where there is form for registering complaints about actions by the police:
http://map.bjcg.gov.cn/bjcgmap/public/wsjb.asp
