Shi Tao
Journalist, poet and Independent Chinese PEN Centre member, Shi Tao was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for "revealing state secrets abroad". In April 2004, Shi Tao sent notes he took of a document read out at an editorial meeting of the Dangdai Shangbao (Contemporary Commerce News) to an overseas website using a Yahoo! email account. According to court documents, Yahoo! (Hong Kong) Holdings Ltd provided the Chinese authorities with Shi Tao's identity.
Sydney PEN believes that the detention of Shi Tao is an infraction of his right to free expression and calls on the Chinese authorities to release him. In 2005 we wrote to Yahoo! and President Hu Jintao to protest his case.
In 2007, Sydney PEN hosted the virtual PEN Poem Relay, which sent Shi Tao's poem, "June", around the world to be translated by PEN centres.