By: A Chinese journalist serving a 10-year jail sentence for allegedly leaking state secrets has been awarded a press freedom prize, the World Association of Newspapers said Tuesday.
The association awarded its annual Golden Pen of Freedom honor to Shi Tao, a former writer for the financial publication Contemporary Business News, who was sentenced under state secrecy laws to 10 years in prison in 2005 for allegedly providing state secrets to foreigners.
His conviction stemmed from an e-mail he sent containing his notes on a government circular that spelled out restrictions on the media ahead of the 15th anniversary of 1989 Tiananmen Square killings.
It later emerged that Yahoo Inc. had turned over the e-mail from Shi's account to prosecutors, which helped them trace the journalist and aided in his conviction.
"The jailing of Mr. Shi is an outrage. It is also a sad example of a Western company aiding and abetting repression in the belief that to refuse would harm its activities in the country," said the Paris-based association, which announced the prize after meeting in the Ukrainian capital.
Shi Hua said his older brother would be very happy to hear of the award, but warned that guards at the Chishan Prison in China's central province of Hunan are very strict and would most likely not allow him to discuss the honor.
"They won't let us talk about anything but family matters when we visit," Shi Hua told The Associated Press by phone from his home in western China's Ningxia province. "When we have brought up anything else, including mentioning Yahoo, they have immediately cut the connection on the visitor's phone."
Shi Hua last visited his brother in October. He said his brother is suffering from a skin condition but is otherwise in good health.
The family has filed several appeals but has received no response from the courts or the Hunan provincial People's Congress, he said.
Press freedom groups say China is the world's leading jailer of journalists, with at least 42 behind bars, most on charges of violating vague subversion or security laws.
The Golden Pen honor, awarded annually since 1961, went last year to Iraqi investigative journalist Akbar Ganji.
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