CPJ condemns 7-year jail sentence for Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu on spy charges

New York, November 29, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a harsh seven-year jail sentence handed down to veteran Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu on Friday on espionage charges, and calls for his immediate release.

Dong, 62, a columnist for the state-run newspaper Guangming Daily, was arrested in Beijing in February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, who was also briefly detained. Dong’s work has been published in the Chinese editions of The New York Times and the Financial Times, and he won a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2006-2007.

“Interacting with diplomats is part of a journalist’s job. Jailing journalists on bogus and vicious charges like espionage is a travesty of justice,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “We condemn this unjust verdict and call on the Chinese authorities to protect the right of journalists to work freely and safely in China. Dong Yuyu must be reunited with his family.”

There was heavy police presence and journalists were asked to leave the court area in the capital Beijing where the sentence was handed down, according to Reuters.

China is the world’s leading jailer of journalists, which had 44 journalists behind bars as of December 1, 2023, according to CPJ’s most recent annual prison census.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for a comment on Dong’s sentencing.