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In a bold challenge to rigid government media controls, Chinese journalists have petitioned for the release of a pair of colleagues jailed after aggressive reporting that was believed to have angered local officials.
In an open letter, the journalists claimed that Yu Huafeng and Li Minying, executives with the Southern Metropolitan Daily, were unfairly prosecuted on trumped-up corruption charges, according to a text of the letter viewed online on Wednesday.
Yu, the paper's former general manager was originally given a 12-year jail term for allegedly embezzling 580,000 yuan (US$70,000) from the newspaper. Li, a former editor in chief, was sentenced to 11 years on charges he took bribes totaling 970,000 yuan (US$117,000).
Those sentences were later reduced to eight and six years, respectively. Yu is appealing.
"We believe the Southern Metropolitan case is an unjust case," said the letter, addressed to the Provincial High Court in the southern province of Guangdong where the Southern Metropolitan is based.
"Yu Huafeng and Li Minying are innocent," it added.
In an interview, Yu's wife said the letter was prompted by the court's failure to meet a May 12 deadline to render its decision on Yu's appeal
"That's why lots of my husband's friends and former colleagues wrote the letter to the court to urge them," Xiang Li said. She said 2,356 people had signed the letter so far.
Xiang said Yu and Li were both being held at Fanyu Prison in Guangdong's capital, Guangzhou, and were in fair condition.
Charges against the men came after the paper reported on the beating death while in detention of a young college graduate, Sun Zhigang. Sun's death, which resulted in changes to nationwide policies for handling itinerant migrants, was considered a major embarrassment for local officials.
It also broke the news of a new case of the deadly disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome before Beijing [Images] reported it to the World Health Organization.
The paper's former chief editor, Cheng Yizhong, was also detained for five months, but released last year without being indicted.
The Southern Metropolitan Daily case was widely seen as a sign that China's new communist leadership was again tightening control over the entirely state controlled media.
China is considered the world's leading jailer of journalists, with 42 in prison at the end of last year.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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