Gao Yu

Gao Yu (2007)

Gao Yu ( Chinese  高 瑜 , Pinyin Gāo Yú ; * 1944 in Chongqing , Republic of China ) is a Chinese journalist and critic of the regime.

Life

Gao graduated from Renmin University in Beijing. In 1979 she became a reporter for the state news agency China News Service , in 1988 she was deputy editor-in-chief of Economics Weekly , published by dissident intellectuals , and she wrote independently for various daily newspapers in the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong. After she wrote an article in the Hong Kong magazine Mirror Monthly in November 1988 , the Beijing mayor criticized it as a "political program for unrest and rebellion" and described Gao as an enemy of the people. After the Tian'anmen massacre , she was arrested in 1989 and released on health grounds after 15 months. She was arrested again in October 1993 and sentenced to six years in prison in November 1994 for disclosing state secrets; in February 1999 she was pardoned because of her health condition. The third arrest followed in 2014 on the grounds that she had given a confidential government document into foreign hands. A corresponding videotaped confession was shown on state television before the trial began. However, Gao retracted this admission to the prosecutor, saying that the police had extorted it from her with threats against her son. She denies the accusation and still does not know which document the indictment is about. Observers suspect that it could be the so-called document number 9 . In April 2015, Gao was sentenced to seven years in prison under a new State Secrets Protection Act. Her lawyer announced an appeal against the verdict. In November 2015, her lawyer announced that the prison sentence had been reduced from seven to five years. The federal government of Germany has campaigned for her release several times. Her health (she has a heart condition) is considered to be poor.

Awards

• 1995: Golden Pen of Freedom Award from the World Association of Newspapers
• 1995: Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation
• 1999: UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize (first awarded)
• 2000: one of the 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the 20th century by the International Press Institute

Web links

Commons : Gao Yu  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Federal Foreign Office - Press releases - Human rights officer Strässer on the verdict against the Chinese journalist Gao Yu
• Arbitrary verdict against journalist Gao Yu - Reporters Without Borders for Freedom of Information

Footnotes

1. ↑ http://www.dw.de/zähes-ringen-im-fall-gao-yu/a-18337090
2. ↑ dpa: China: Government critic Gao Yu denies betrayal. In: Zeit Online. November 21, 2014, accessed March 25, 2015 . 
3. ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/prozess-gao-yu-china-101.html ( Memento from November 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ Deutsche Welle : Chinese journalist Gao Yu sentenced to seven years in prison
5. ↑ spiegel.de April 17, 2015
6. ↑ zeit.de November 26, 2015
7. ↑ spiegel.de November 26, 2015
8. ↑ http://www.iwmf.org/article.aspx?id=539&c=cijwinner  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ http://www.iwmf.org/article.aspx?id=583&c=cijwinner  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ UNESCO ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Gao is the family name here, Yu is the first name.