China condemned by media rights group

A United States-based media rights group has sent an open letter to the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, condemning the arrest of a Chinese writer for posting unauthorised articles on overseas web sites.

The Committee to Protect Journalists group say that Chen Shaowen was arrested in August on charges of subversion, after a Chinese provincial newspaper, the Hunan Daily, said he published more than 40 articles containing reactionary material.

The CPJ says his arrest brings to 14 the number of journalists currently known to be in Chinese prisons for publishing unauthorised information online.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service