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Bush urged to lobby China on release of its dissidents

A press freedom group on Friday asked US President George W. Bush to intercede on behalf of China's jailed journalists and dissidents.

Robert Menard, secretary general of Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, encouraged Bush to use his visit to China -- scheduled for later this month -- to lobby for the release of prisoners of conscience or at least an improvement in their prison conditions.

"We ask you to ensure that the Chinese officials you meet are given a list of political prisoners, including journalists and cyber-dissidents, whose release is requested by the United States," Menard said in a letter to Bush dated Friday.

Menard's letter asked the president to stress the case of Zhao Yan (趙岩), a New York Times researcher who was arrested last year on suspicion of leaking state secrets after the paper reported former president Jiang Zemin's (江澤民) plan to give up a key military post.

The letter said at least 30 journalists and dissidents who ran underground newspapers are currently detained in China and at least 60 people are in detention there for creating Web sites or otherwise expressing themselves on the Internet.

"You should remind your Chinese counterparts that, when Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympic Games, they undertook to let the foreign news media work freely," the letter said. "European and US journalists were recently detained and threatened by the Chinese police for working without prior authorization."
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