Screenshots

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced yesterday that it considered Chinese blogger Hao Wu to be a victim of state abduction.

More than two months have gone by since Hao was arrested by the National Security Bureau in Beijing, and his family was unable to get any news about him. Neither could Hao's lawyer been allowed to see him, and he was only to told that his client is under house arrest. Quote from the RSF statement:

"This case shows the Chinese security services operate without any control by the courts," Reporters Without Borders said.

"Hao is the victim of an arbitrary system that interprets the law as it sees fit. We call on European and American diplomats to raised his case at their meetings with the Chinese authorities. We are curious know how they will justify the National Security Bureau's procedures."

In a message posted two days ago on her blog, Hao's sister, Na Wu, said she had hired a lawyer who asked three questions during an interview with the National Security Bureau on 21 April:

1. Why is his client being held longer than allowed by the law?


2. Why did the authorities refuse to inform his client's family of his arrest? and


3. Why did they refuse to let him see his client, which they should have done within the first 48 hours of his arrest?

According to the sister, the National Security Bureau replied that:

1. Rhese were just "misunderstandings"


2. Hao was no longer in detention, he was under "house arrest"


3. At the same time, the case was "classified," which explained why no information had been given about the charges against Hao and where he was being held.

Finally, neither Hao's family or his lawyer had been allowed to see him because they had not formally requested it, the bureau added.

However, Na said she has never been directly notified about her brother's arrest. "The classified nature of the arrest is completely new and has never previously been mentioned by the bureau."

Hao's lawyer also posts comments on his blog. He wrote that Hao should have been placed under "house arrest" fot no more than 30 days after his arrest. Calling the case "classified" was just a pretext for not disclosing the charges against Hao, he added.

Na finished her latest message with the follow comments:

"If you have already visited my blog and are already aware of the efforts we have undertaken since his arrest, you will understand how unconvincing the National Security Bureau's explanations and excuses are."

In a phone with Reporters Without Borders, she added: "The police have made it clear to me that they are aware of everything I have said and done."

Hao has a blog called Beijing or Bust in which he writes under the pseudonym of Beijing Loafer. He uses the nick of Tian Yi to serve as the North-East Asia editor of Global Voices, a Harvard-endorsed global blogger initiative this blogger is involved in.

Hao was arrested on 22 February while preparing a report on China's underground protestant churches. He was never put to trial.

Global Voices has set up a Hao support site: http://ethanzuckerman.com/haowu.

As a member of Global Voices, Screenshots has put up two postings on Hao, and this blogger spoke in collaboration with RSF at the Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace conference in Manila recently.

The video clip of my presentation and Free Wu Hao appeal is available for download via Asia247.tv, and the podcast at FreeExpressionAsia. My presentation slides are available here.

Ethan Zuckerman of Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School, has a mention of this in his blog.