Amnesty blasts China for jailing woman for year in labour camp over satirical tweet
November 19th, 2010 - 5:10 pm ICT by ANIBeijing, Nov 19(ANI): A 46-year-old Chinese woman has been sentenced to a year in labour camp for posting a satirical ‘anti-Japanese’ message on Twitter.
It is believed to be the harshest sentence related to a tweet on the microblogging website, which is banned in China, but is widely accessed and used particularly by human rights defenders and their supporters, News.com.au reports.
Cheng Jianping, an online activist, was arrested on October 28 for retweeting a sarcastic message on her Twitter account ‘wangyi09.
The offending tweet was originally posted by her fiance Hua Chunhui in the midst of anti-Japanese demonstrations in China last month.
The tweet had urged the protesters to smash Japan’s pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, while Cheng retweeted it, adding the words, “Charge, angry youth”.
Cheng was convicted of “disturbing social order” by a court in the central province of Henan on Monday.
Meanwhile, human rights group Amnesty International said that the case showed China’s “repression” of Internet users.
“Sentencing someone to a year in a labour camp for simply repeating another person’s clearly satirical observation on Twitter demonstrates the level of China’s repression of online expression,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s director for the Asia-Pacific. (ANI)
- Woman arrested in China for using Twitter - Nov 21, 2010
- Chinese Twitter user arrested for supporting jailed 'uncle'Nobel winner Xiaobo - Oct 27, 2010
- Holly Madison and boyfriend Jack Barakat split - Mar 22, 2011
- Obscene tweet posted on Medvedev's Twitter account - Dec 08, 2011
- Bale defends China War movie - Dec 19, 2011
- Chinese social media users 'happier' than Westerners - Jun 28, 2012
- Chinese online activists charged with subversion over calls for Jasmine revolution - Feb 25, 2011
- Justin Bieber avenges enemy by tweeting his number to 4.5m fans - Aug 16, 2010
- Maroon 5 helps African refugee crisis - Jul 14, 2011
- Chinese official sacked for group sex - Aug 12, 2011
- China's online retailers declare cut-throat price war - Aug 16, 2012
- Zardari's children vow to stand by convicted Gilani - Apr 27, 2012
- Twitter analysis can be used for stock market predictions! - Apr 05, 2011
- Demi Lovato splits from boyfriend? - Jan 12, 2012
- Jessie J targeted by hacker - Jan 25, 2012
Tags: amnesty international, angry youth, asia pacific, blasts, central province, chinese woman, demonstrations, fiance, henan, human rights defenders, human rights group, internet users, japanese message, labour camp, news com au, protesters, repression, tweet, twitter, zarifi