Du Daobin

Writer and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, Du Daobin was re-arrested on July 21, 2008 to serve the remaining two years and four months of his three-year sentence, which had been suspended for four years, followed by two years’ deprivation of political rights.

Du was convicted on June 11, 2004 of “inciting subversion of state power” for 175 words in 26 of his articles. Weeks before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he was accused of violating the terms of his sentence by publishing more than 100 articles on the Internet, leaving the city, and receiving guests without permission from the police. Du is currently being held in Hanxi Prison, Wuhan City, Hubei Province.

On July 8 2008, PEN American Center, PEN Canada, and the Independent Chinese PEN Center issued a report, Failing to Deliver: An Olympic-Year Report Card on Free Expression in China, which found that the climate for freedom of expression in China had measurably deteriorated over 2007-2008, in full view of the international community. According to the report, not only were there more writers in prison than there were seven months previously (at the time of International PEN's previous caselist), but there are serious restrictions placed on writers’ movements and on their ability to speak and publish freely.

Sydney PEN urges its members and supporters to read Failing to Deliver, which recommends that the Chinese government live up to its pledges to improve its human rights record by releasing all writers imprisoned in China and lifting restrictions on freedom of expression, and urges all nations participating in the Olympics to hold China accountable to these pledges.

Courtesy of PEN American Center