Sign petition to free Tibetan journalist

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2012/nov/06/press-freedom-tibet

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Press freedom watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), is asking people to sign a petition aimed at freeing Tibetan journalist Dhondup Wangchen.

He was imprisoned by the Chinese authorities in March 2008 after making a documentary film in which Tibetan people spoke about the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government in the year leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

He was held incommunicado for more than a year. Lawyers who represented him were threatened and withdrew. Amnesty International named Wangchen as a prisoner of conscience before his trial in December 2009 in which he was sentenced to six years in jail for "subversion".

Wangchen will be honoured with CPJ's 2012 International Press Freedom Award on 20 November. He will not be able to attend the ceremony of course. Instead, he will be spending yet another night in a cold prison cell in the Xichuan labour camp.

You can access the full petition, which calls on Chinese president Hu Jintao to release Wangchen, at www.causes.com/freewangchen

<em>Sources:</em> CPJ/Amnesty International/Wikipedia