Because they gave the community a voice, they were among the first prisoners: On Freedom of the Press Day, we remember Uighur journalists.
Freedom of the press is virtually non-existent in China. More and more international correspondents are leaving the country, while journalists on the ground continue to face massive surveillance and harsh punishments, not only against themselves but also against their families. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 47 media workers were arrested in China last year – among them the reporters:
inside who first reported on the spread of the coronavirus, as well as bloggers who followed the democracy protests in Hong Kong on social media.
Many of the journalists trapped in China are served long sentences, often without a fair trial. This also includes the Uighur journalists, whose portraits can be seen on this page. The Muslim minority is severely persecuted in China: Thousands of members of the Uyghur population are locked up in “re-education camps” and, according to reports from Zeug: Inside, are often tortured.
Uyghur journalists who reported on the persecution or who simply campaigned for the preservation of their own language and culture were arrested by the government in 2018 and taken to the camps. But the majority of the media workers shown here are still in custody three years later. Their whereabouts, their state of health or the length of their prison sentence are usually not known to the public. In most cases, family members have no way of keeping in contact with them if they have not been imprisoned themselves in the course of “kin detention”.
The Chinese government often justifies the persecution of the free press on charges of propaganda, but in many cases precise reasons for the detention are not even given.
In order to draw attention to their situation, the Truth Fighters Association illustrates murdered and imprisoned media workers around the world. The association of artists regularly organizes exhibitions and letter campaigns for the benefit of imprisoned journalists. Due to the pandemic, the drawings are currently only shown online. The illustrations on this page come from various artists of the association.
All works as well as further information about the portrayed can be found on the website www.wahrheitskaempfer.de
