winning press freedom conference

Guo Guoting has one of the toughest jobs in the legal profession. He is a human rights defense lawyer in China and has handled some 1,000 cases so far.

Out of the 150,000 defense lawyers in China, only 15 have enough courage to practice human rights law.

They, including him, literally risk their freedom in their valiant efforts to seek freedom for others.

Risking Freedom for the Freedom of Others
By Guo Guoting

In my experience, the Chinese government tries to control the media.

I have dealt so many important cases, but there's no journalist who dares get involved in the cases, because the Chinese government uses four ways to control the media.

The first way is the law; it lacks legitimacy. The Propaganda Ministry of China orders the newspapers, television stations and magazines what they can cover and cannot.

If anyone disobeys them, they will face a lot of trouble, someone will be sent to jail for ten to 12 years. During the Mao times, if anyone disobeyed the government, they would lose their lives.

So many journalists and writers nowadays, simply because they post their political opinions on the Internet, they would lose their license, their jobs and even their freedom. Not only is this for journalists, but also these consequences apply for anyone in China.

Shin Tao's consequences are not because he emailed the "secrets," when he emailed the messaged to America. Within 24 hours, the police had identified what he'd done. The police already knew who emailed it and only 6 months later, he was arrested. The email was nothing. The policemen had placed him under surveillance and so the main reason for his punishment was that apparently he had copied too many articles from the Internet, so they found a way to punish him.

In China there are 150,000 lawyers, but maybe only 15 human rights lawyers. 90% of these 15 lose their jobs. Some of them were sentenced to prison, two of them, to labor camps. When I was out of the country, three of them were fired by their law firms. I mention this because human rights attorneys or an expert do know the law but they themselves have no human rights.

Free press and free assembly are fundamental principles that have no future in China. We are expecting 30,000 journalists to cover the Olympics, but they will not be limited to covering the Games. They may interview ordinary citizens as well.

The Chinese government has lost its confidence, they don't believe in themselves. They may be able to rule China for a long time, but they don't want to release their control. They want to control the media. Internet control is so serious--only through the Internet can people get a lot of news--and it can penetrate the Firewall of China.

Some of the news in the Chinese media is fake. There are 55 regulations that control the Internet. There is no law controlling the Internet, but they have regulations, totally controlled by the Communist party. If the Communist regime went away for one day, there'd be no human rights or freedom. The Chinese government is not afraid of their people but they are afraid of international political pressure.

China has hope because so many people are concerned about it. I express our gratitude to you on behalf of all Chinese for your concern and help.

Guo Guoting, a defense lawyer in China for 21 years, has handled some 1,000 cases so far.