Educational Media Reviews Online

In April 2008 a young Chinese journalist, Hu Jia, was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for “inciting subversion of state power.” This story is like many freedom of speech stories when government is offended by the criticisms of writers or journalists. It is hard for us to understand when our freedom of speech and press in American is so vigorously protected by the Constitution. One of the people interviewed is the head of a Thought Research Center in China. He points out that Chinese society is governed by laws and that freedom of speech and freedom of press is conditional. The condition in China is you can’t conflict with the law. Indeed if you focus on one point and exaggerate or portray negativity such that it has a negative social impact, you should be punished. In Hu’s five articles he is accused of spreading malicious rumors and committing libel against the political power. Also mentioned is another activist Yang Chunlin who collected over ten thousand signatures for the petition “We want human rights not the Olympics.” He too was sentenced to prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” Since his arrest Hu Jia has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. This was an interesting account of what is happening in China and how freedom of speech and human rights violations continue despite pleas from other nations. Recommended.