Award-winning NYT journalist to go on trial in China

China is to put on trial a Chinese journalist charged with exposing state secrets while working for The New York Times, his lawyers said on ...

China is to put on trial a Chinese journalist charged with exposing state secrets while working for The New York Times, his lawyers said on Friday.

Zhao Yan, who worked as a researcher for the paper before his arrest in September last year, won the Reporters Without Borders 2005 prize this month for journalists who have “shown a strong commitment to press freedom”.

“The way they have done this shows they know how controversial the charge is,” Zhao’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said. The prosecution sent the case “back for reinvestigation twice and then waited until the last day to notify us”, he said.

Story continues below this ad

The bill of indictment would probably be received by the court next week, Mo said. Once it is received, the court would have between one and one-and-a-half months to hear the case.

Zhao (43) faces a possible prison sentence of 10 years or longer after security officials charged him with telling the New York Times details about rivalry between China’s outgoing Communist Party leader, Jiang Zemin, and new leader Hu Jintao. Zhao also faces a charge of fraud.

Zhao has been held in a Beijing state security detention centre. His family have been barred from communicating with him. —Reuters

Leopard’s growl and a lie: How a blood-stained rock and a forensic report exposed a murder

Cities16 min ago

In December 2024, a woman was found dead in a sugarcane field in Maharashtra, sparking public outrage over the human-wildlife conflict. The initial statement of a leopard attack was later revealed to be a planned murder by the victim's husband's nephew and a laborer. They were arrested and a charge sheet was filed against them.

View all shorts

Live Blog

PHOTOS