Thursday, July 20, 2006 Bonn, Calgary, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Paris, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Seattle, Toronto.
WHAT: TEN CITIES PRESS CONFERENCE FOR JAILED JOURNALIST
The press conference is a coordinated public appeal for the release of journalist Ching Cheong, the chief China correspondent for Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper. He has been detained in China since April 2005 and is scheduled to be sentenced later this month. He has been accused of spying. A video appeal by his wife will be shown.
Participating cities in the press conference are:
Bonn, Calgary, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Paris, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Seattle, Toronto.
WHEN: Thursday, July 20, 2006
TIME: Please see each time for each city below or the contacts
WHERE: Please see location below
Bonn, Calgary, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Paris, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Seattle, Toronto.
Statement from the International Federation of Journalists
July 19, 2006
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing more than 500,000 journalists in more than 120 countries, is deeply concerned about the plight of Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong.
Ching is the chief China correspondent for Singapore' s The Straits Times newspaper. He is a Hong Kong citizen, a legal resident of Singapore, and is a well-respected and experienced journalist. According to his wife, in April 2005 Ching went to China to meet a source who was to give him a manuscript about Zhao Ziyang, the former Prime Minister of China who spent 15 years under house arrest following the Tiananmen massacre. On April 22, 2005 Ching was arrested in Guangzhou and placed under a form of detention called "residence under surveillance" in Beijing.
During the first month of Ching's detention, his wife complied with the advice of China's Public Security Bureau and did not go public with any information. Her last conversation with her husband was on May 29, 2005. Because so many of his friends, colleagues and relatives had been inquiring about Ching, his wife finally decided to publicise the information about his detention and on May 30, 2005, the media reported Ching's situation.
On August 5, 106 days after he was first detained, the Beijing State Security Bureau formally charged Ching with spying for Taiwan. Ching faces life imprisonment for > "> endangering national security> "> . Ching has been denied the rights granted to him under the China> '> s Criminal Procedure Code: he has been kept in isolation, denied all legal recourse, and refused access to family members and Strait Times colleagues.
The IFJ and its affiliates continue to demand the dropping of all charges and the speedy release of Ching Cheong.
CONTACT: See contacts below for each city.
Main contact: Ann Lau, Los Angeles, USA,
alau@visual-artists-guild.org.remove
SUPPORT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS CONFERENCES FOR CHING CHEONG:
Amnesty International Group 4 Seattle
Association of Humanitarian Lawyers
Chinese Alliance For Democracy, Seattle Chapter
Committee to Protect Journalists
Federation For a Democratic China, Seattle Chapter
FIDH (International Federation of Human Rights, - Fédération Internationale des Droits de - l'Hommes), Paris
Hong Kong Alliance for Democracy in China
Hong Kong Forum, Los Angeles
Hong Kong Journalists Association
International Federation of Journalists, IFJ-Asia
Laogai Research Foundation
Magazine New China, Germany
Movement for Democracy in China (Calgary)
PEN Canada
Reporters Without Borders/Reporters Sans Frontieres
Silicon Valley for Democracy in China
The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong
Toronto Associaton for Demoracy in China
Visual Artists Guild
Wei Jingsheng Foundation
Author Mr. Ethan Gutmann,
Members of the New York Press Club,
Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice,
Bernard Stein of the Riverdale Press,
Jay Nordlinger of National Review.
CONTACTS FOR CITIES
Main Contact:
Los Angeles, U. S. A. - contact: Ann Lau, alau@visual-artists-guild.org.remove
Contacts in participating Cities
Melbourne, Australia - Mike Dobbie, (03) 9691-7131, mobile 0407 311 20, <mike.dobbie@alliance.org.au>
Press Conference Location: 10 a.m. , Offices of the IFJ Australian affiliate member
the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, Level 4, 221 Queen Street, Melbourne, Australia
Calgary, Canada - Wah Kwok, 403-560-6053(cell), skype ID: calwkwok <kwokwah@telus.net>
Press Conference Location: 3:00 pm., outside Calgary Chinese Consulate
1011-6th Ave, S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Toronto, Canada - Cheuk C. Kwan, 416-804-1527, <ckwan@tissa.com>
Paris, France - Nancy Li, 33-1-4874-0285 or 0359, <li.nancy@noos.fr>
Bonn, Germany - Peng Xiaoming, <xmp68373@hotmail.com>
Hong Kong - Serenade Woo, (852) 9145-9145, Hong Kong Journalist Association, chairperson@hkja.org.hk
Press Conference Location: 3:30 p.m. , The Foreign Correspondents Club, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong.
Los Angeles, U. S. A. - Ann Lau, alau@visual-artists-guild.org.remove
Press Conference Location: 3:00 pm., Golden Dragon Restaurant
970 N. Broadway, Los Angeles Chinatown, Los Angeles
New York, U. S. A. - Ann Noonan, 646-251-6069, <annnoonan@hotmail.com>
Press Conference Location : 3:00 p.m., Lin Sing Association office
49 Mott Street – 2nd Floor, New York City’s Chinatown, New York
San Francisco/Silicon Valley, U. S. A. -
Ignatius Ding, 408-250-5624, <cyber_warrior@yahoogroups.com>
Seattle, U. S. A. - Jin Xiu Hong, 206-508-8886, SeattleFDC@yahoo.com
(you must dial *82 if you have blocking on your phone)