China jails journalist 7 years for 'disclosing state secrets'

China has sentenced a veteran journalist to seven years in prison on charges of "disclosing state secrets" in a case that illustrates the widening crackdown on free speech in the country.

Gao Yu, 71, a well-respected journalist known for her trenchant criticism of the government, was handed the sentence by a Beijing court on Friday, five months after she was convicted in a closed-door trial.

Human rights groups have excoriated authorities for the sentence and the conduct of her trial, which appears to have been intended as a warning to critics of the ruling Communist party.

"This deplorable sentence against Gao Yu is nothing more than blatant political persecution by the Chinese authorities," said William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International. "She is the victim of vaguely worded and arbitrary state-secret laws that are used against activists as part of the authorities' attack on freedom of expression."

Ms Gao was accused of supplying a US-based Chinese news outlet with a copy of "Document Number 9", a Communist party document on ideological correctness that laid out plans for an attack on liberal political ideas.

The document called for action to stop the spread of "western" ideas and values, including democracy, civil society, universal values and press freedom, which the party has identified as a threat to its authoritarian rule.

By the time Ms Gao is alleged to have sent the document, it had already been widely summarised on government websites and distributed widely amongst party members.

The media organisation she is alleged to have sent it to, Mirror Media Group, has denied receiving it from her.

Since President Xi Jinping took power in late 2012, the party has been engaged in a vociferous ideological campaign against "hostile foreign forces" and those promoting "western values" in China.

Journalists, NGOs, outspoken academics and anyone seen as overly critical of Mr Xi and the party have all been targeted.

In its Press Freedom Index 2015, Reporters Without Borders ranks China 176th out of 180 countries. Only Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Syria and North Korea have less freedom of the press than China.

According to Human Rights Watch, Ms Gao's case was marred by repeated procedural violations.

She was forced to confess on national television in May 2014 out of concern for her son, who was detained and later released. She was prevented from meeting her lawyers until two months into her detention and her family was not notified about her detention during that time.

The charge of revealing state secrets carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

Ms Gao is expected to appeal.

This will be her third prison sentence for outspoken journalism. She began her career as a journalist in 1979 and came to prominence as a liberal voice for political change in the lead-up to the June 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

In the wake of that event she spent nearly a year in jail and was imprisoned again from 1993 to 1999 on the same charges of "revealing state secrets abroad".

"The document Gao Yu is accused of leaking can in no reasonable way be classified as a legitimate state secret," said Mr Nee. "To the authorities' immense embarrassment, Gao Yu laid bare the Communist party's outright hostility to human rights, and for that she is being severely punished."

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