BY Damilola Odunlami
Chinese Journalist Gao Yu has received a seven years jail sentence for “providing foreigners with state secrets”.
The 71-year-old journalist was reported to have leaked a confidential paper, a Communist Party strategy paper known as “Document No 9”, to a foreign websites.
William Nee, a china researcher at the rights groups, said Gao was a victim of arbitrary state laws used against activists.
“Gao is the victim of vaguely worded and arbitrary state-secret laws that are used against activists as part of the authorities’ attack on freedom of expression,” she said.
Shang Baojun, who is one of her lawyers, said they were disappointed with the judgment.
“We are very disappointed with the verdict and would appeal,” she said
This will be the third time Gao has been jailed for her activism. In 1993, she was arrested after the Tiananmen Square protests and was released after 15 months because of her health problems.
Later in October 1993, she was arrested and in November 1994, she was sentenced to six years on the accusation of having published state secrets.
Gao was detained later in 2014, a few weeks ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Media advocacy group, Committee to Protect Journalists, revealed that Gao was one of 44 Chinese journalists behind bars.
China now has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world, the group says.
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