By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 15: Four Tibetans have been included in the 2016 list of jailed journalists in China in a report published by International press freedom and journalist rights group CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists).
The four Tibetans were listed in the total 38 jailed journalists in China, among which were Chinese as well as Uighur nationals including prominent Chinese activist Liu Xiabo and Uighur activist Ilham Tohti.
The four Tibetans in the list include online writer Kunchok Tsephel Gopey Tsang who runs Tibetan cultural issues website Chomei, was arrested in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. He was arrested as part of a Chinese security forces’ campaign to detain writers and intellectuals prior to the 50th anniversary of the March 19, 1959 uprising in Lhasa, Tibet. Tsang was sentenced to fifteen years for being anti state and for disclosing state secrets in Nov. 2009.
Tibetan author and monk Gartse Jigme from the Rebgong Gartse monastery in the Malho prefecture of Qinghai province was sentenced to five years in May 2013 on charges of inciting separatism, a charge by and large many Tibetans detained by Chinese authorities are subjected to.
Sources say that his conviction was in connection with the second volume of his book, Tsenpoi Nyingtob (The Warrior’s Courage) where he expressed his views on issues such as Chinese policies in Tibet, self-immolation, minority rights, and the Dalai Lama. His whereabouts and condition is still unknown.
Tibetan writer Drukar Gyal, also known as Druklo, also made it to the infamous list. He was detained in March 2015, and sentenced by Chinese court in Huangnan prefecture, Qinghai province to 3 years in prison on February 17, 2016, for inciting separatism and endangering social stability.
The verdict pronounced that Gyal’s posts on his blog and social media religious freedom, and a repost of a news report about the Dalai Lama as evidence of “inciting separatism.”
Another Tibetan who was in the list is writer and blogger Lobsang Jamyang, also known as Lomig, arrested in April, 2015 by the Chinese police in Ngaba County in Sichuan province and sentenced to seven and a half years in May 2016 by the Wenchuan People’s Court in Sichuan for leaking state secrets.
His articles that were critical of the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet, including pieces on environmental degradation, freedom of speech, the 2008 uprising and the spate of self immolations were used against him during his closed door trail. Author of the book, Surge of Yellow Mist, Jamyang who is held at the Mianyang prison in Sichuan Province is in poor health, according to sources.
The 2016 census by CPJ listed in total 259 journalists worldwide; Turkey topping the list of countries to jail journalists with 81 people followed by China with 38.
