China: Journalist sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage charges
Dong Yuyu's family argued that the decision is not only against the reporter, but is an attack on the free press.
Congressional-Executive Commission on China poster.
A court in China sentenced veteran journalist Dong Yuyu to seven years in prison for alleged espionage. The information was confirmed by relatives of the veteran state media journalist, who called the decision an injustice.
"Sentencing Yuyu to seven years in prison on no evidence declares to the world the bankruptcy of the justice system in China," Dong's family said in a statement provided to Reuters.
The statement notes that the decision is not only against Yuyu but also against the free press. "Today's verdict is a grave injustice not only to Yuyu and his family but also to every freethinking Chinese journalist and every ordinary Chinese committed to friendly engagement with the world," the family detailed.
Yuyu was detained by police in the Chinese capital in February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, the U.S. National Press Club said in a statement. He was later charged with espionage.
"The Japanese diplomat he met, one of two he had regularly met in the past, was also detained for several hours, spurring a complaint from Japan's foreign ministry," Reuters detailed.
Meanwhile, it was also learned that more than 700 journalists, academics and NGO workers signed an online petition for his release.
"Dong Yuyu is a talented reporter and author whose work has long been respected by colleagues," said Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.
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