UAA commemorates World Press Freedom Day

For immediate release
May 3, 2013, 2:35 pm EST
Contact: Uyghur American Association +1 (202) 478 1920

On May 3, 2013, as people across the globe commemorate World Press Freedom Day, the Uyghur American Association (UAA) reminds the international community of the egregious human rights abuses faced by Uyghur journalists and the absence of open reporting in East Turkestan.

World Press Freedom Day is an opportunity to restate the importance of an independent media to an evenhanded society and to revisit state obligations towards press freedom as outlined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“It is imperative to remember the dismal situation in East Turkestan on World Press Freedom Day. Uyghurs across the region are fed a diet of state propaganda that tells them of government benevolence when their own eyes tell them something very different,” said UAA President Alim Seytoff in a statement from Washington, DC.

“The fact that many Uyghur journalists have come forward to tell the world of the discrimination and brutality in East Turkestan in spite of certain harsh punishment speaks volumes for their courage. Today, we should also remember those Uyghurs currently languishing in prison for doing nothing more than seeking to tell the truth about their plight.”

Curbs on Uyghur journalists have been extensively documented. In 2010, Chinese authorities moved to punish Uyghur webmasters and journalists for their alleged involvement in July 2009 unrest in the East Turkestan capital of Urumchi through a series of harsh sentences.

Memetjan Abdulla, a former editor at China National Radio and a manager for the website Salkin, is one of two Uyghur journalists reportedly sentenced to life in prison in 2010. The U.S. Department of State highlighted his case on April 24, 2013 at a press briefing.

The other journalist, 32-year-old Gulmire Imin, was reportedly sentenced at the same time. Imin was invited to become an administrator for Salkin after having published a number of poems on various Uyghur websites.

Uyghur journalist Gheyret Niyaz was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2010 for endangering state security by speaking to foreign journalists. Niyaz was reportedly sentenced following a one-day trial in Urumchi, which only one family member, his wife Risalet, was allowed to attend.

Three other Uyghur webmasters were also convicted on charges of endangering state security in July 2010. Dilshat Perhat, the 28-year-old Webmaster and owner of the website Diyarim, was sentenced to five years in prison after a closed trial; Nureli Obul, the Webmaster of the website Salkin, and Nijat Azat, the Webmaster of the website Shabnam, were convicted in closed trials on or around the same day and sentenced to three and ten years respectively. UAA is unaware if Nureli Obul has been released from prison.

Tursunjan Hezim, who worked on the Uyghur language website, Orkhun, was sentenced to seven years in prison. However, news of Hezim’s sentence materialized eight months after a closed hearing.

In an illustration of China’s international influence and the danger to Uyghurs of contributing to newsgathering, Ershidin Israel, a schoolteacher, was extradited from Kazakhstan to China in June 2011. Israel had fled to Kazakhstan to seek refuge from the Chinese authorities when unsubstantiated terrorism allegations were made against him. The allegations arose after Israel informed Radio Free Asia reporters about the beating to death of Uyghur Shohret Tursun. Israel also informed Radio Free Asia about the arrest of two other Uyghur individuals, Haji Memet and Abdusalam Nasir, whom Chinese authorities had accused of providing information about Tursun’s death to Radio Free Asia.

In its annual Freedom in the World report released on May 1, 2013, human rights NGO, Freedom House declared China “not free” and regarding press freedom stated “all news outlets are required to follow regularly issued CCP [Chinese Communist Party] directives to avoid certain topics or publish content from party mouthpieces. Routinely censored topics include calls for greater autonomy in Tibet and Xinjiang.” In an annual survey compiled by NGO Reporters Without Borders, in 2013 China ranked almost bottom out of 179 countries for its commitment to press freedom. As part of research conducted for its 2012 Attacks on the Press, the Committee to Protect Journalists called China “among world’s worst jailers,” and stated the Chinese “government targets Tibetan, Uighur journalists.”

Limitations placed on the free flow of information were most notable in East Turkestan after the outbreak of unrest in the regional capital of Urumchi in July 2009. The Chinese government shut down Internet connections and international phone calls on the night of the July 5 unrest, and only restored “full” communications after 10 months in May 2010.

The dearth of independent information on the situation in East Turkestan was also noticeable during recent violence in Maralbeshi County in April 2013. Both the BBC’s Damian Grammaticas and the New York Times’ Ed Wong expressed skepticism on official versions of the incident. Ed Wong went as far as to describe elements of Xinjiang government spokesperson Hou Hanmin’s explanation of events as “bizarre.”

Doubts expressed by overseas journalists over Chinese government information on East Turkestan were also evident during the unrest in July 2009 and a violent attack in Kashgar in September 2008.

In limiting access to overseas journalists, the Chinese government is able to control the interpretation of events in East Turkestan towards its own narrative. While the policy has the effect of casting doubt on Chinese government accounts, it also has profound resonances on the future of stability in the region. In an April 26, 2013 article published in Foreign Policy entitled China’s Black Hole, Isaac Stone Fish discussed the strict limitations placed on western journalists reporting on East Turkestan, a fact, which, he added, “has implications for American understanding of Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as for the worrying situation on the ground.”

The tight restrictions placed on Uyghur and overseas journalists to independently report on East Turkestan is coupled with extensive blocking of websites in the region and jamming of Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur service. Nevertheless, China has aggressively sought to promote its state media outlets, such as CCTV and the China Daily, in overseas democracies as part of a ‘soft diplomacy’ initiative.

UAA calls upon the Chinese government to free all imprisoned Uyghur journalists and to abide by international standards of press freedom if it is become a responsible member of the community of nations. UAA also asks the international community to vigorously remind China of its international obligations towards open reporting and a free media.