Journalist Shohret Hoshur left China 20 years ago, fearing for his safety after authorities branded him a separatist for his critical coverage of the plight of his fellow ethnic Uighurs.
Now based in Washington, Hoshur said Chinese authorities have adopted another tactic to get him off the airwaves — pressuring his family.
The US Department of State on Thursday voiced deep concern over reports that three of Hoshur’s brothers have been imprisoned in China in retribution for his journalism.
The 49-year-old reporter said it follows years of threats by authorities in the restive region of Xinjiang in China’s far west, where his broadcasts in the Uighur language offer a rare alternative to state-run media.
There has been no coverage of their cases in Chinese media, but his relatives in Xinjiang have been told by police that one brother was sentenced to five years at a mass trial in June, accused of endangering state security.
The other two were detained in August, apparently for “leaking state secrets” after speaking by telephone to Hoshur about the trial. They have not been seen by their family since.
“We urge Chinese authorities to cease harassment of his family and to treat them fairly and with dignity,” US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a news conference in Washington, urging respect for internationally recognized human rights, including freedom of expression.
Hoshur reports for US government-funded Radio Free Asia. He told reporters that authorities began harassing his family in Xinjiang’s Qorghas County after he reported a story about the death by torture of a Uighur in September 2009.
The pressure intensified last spring as authorities cracked down on perceived enemies among Uighurs amid a series of deadly attacks over recent months that Chinese authorities have blamed on radical separatists.
Hoshur said his brothers are farmers and merchants with little interest in politics or social issues, and dismisses the validity of any of the charges brought against them. He said he would not give into pressure to give up his journalism with Radio Free Asia, although his sister-in-law has been told by local government officials that is the only way to get his brothers released.
“In my personal experience, the Chinese authorities could intensify their pressure after you start obeying them,” said Hoshur, who has been honored at the New York Festivals radio program awards for his investigative coverage of Uighurs who have gone missing since deadly unrest in Xinjiang in 2009.
“If I leave from my job, this method can be used widely among Uighurs abroad as a successful tactic. I don’t want to be made an example of, obeying an authoritarian regime’s unacceptable demand,” he said.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS