Friday, Sep 01, 2006
Singapore paper criticizes China after reporter jailed for alleged
espionage
SINGAPORE (AP) - A Singaporean newspaper whose reporter has been
jailed by Chinese authorities on espionage charges expressed
support for its employee and criticized Beijing on Friday, saying
the country's judicial process should be more open.
Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based China correspondent for the Straits
Times in Singapore, was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison
after being convicted of selling secrets to Taiwan, a self-ruled
island that Beijing claims as its territory.
A Beijing court found Ching guilty of selling unspecified "state
secrets and intelligence" to an unidentified Taiwanese foundation
that is really a spy agency, China's official Xinhua news agency
said. China and Taiwan split in 1949 amid civil war and are
believed to spy actively on each other.
The newspaper said the process by which Ching was prosecuted should
have been more transparent. Ching was detained during a visit to
the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in April 2005 and stood
trial earlier this month in a one-day closed proceeding.
"Judicial opaqueness is the first of the old-style institutional
staples which a modernizing China will want to get to grips with as
the nation moves to centre stage in world affairs," the newspaper
said in an editorial. "We acknowledge this is a work in progress,
but it is an important one."
The newspaper also urged the central Chinese government to look
into what it called a "lack of clarity and certainty" in the
country's interpretation of secrecy laws and what constituted
violations of national security.
"Journalists cannot be second-guessing security officials and
operating on the basis that their first mistake shall be their
last," the editorial said.
Ching's conviction came during a government campaign to tighten
media controls that has seen dozens of journalists jailed.
© The Canadian Press, 2006
http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=world_home&articleID=2370536
Somehow.. the pot is calling the kettle black. 
