Background on Shi Tao
Amnesty International believes that all countries and businesses have a moral and legal obligation to respect human rights at home and abroad. Abrogation of these rights can involve a spectrum of issues ranging from environmental harm perpetrated by corporations in their own or in other countries to an abridgement by a sovereign nation of the rights of its citizens, including that of privacy on the Internet.
For example, several high-profile cases of invasion of Internet privacy have recently occurred in China. In one of these cases, journalist and poet Shi Tao is serving a 10-year prison sentence for sending an email in April 2004 to a U.S.-based pro-democracy website summarizing a government order that directed media organizations in China to downplay the upcoming 15th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists.
On the basis of that email, Chinese authorities charged Shi Tao with “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities.” He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in April 2005, where he remains to this day. According to the court transcript, Internet company Yahoo! provided to the Chinese authorities the account holder information that was used as evidence to convict him.
The vaguely worded legal definition of what constitutes a “state secret” gives the
Chinese government broad discretion in detaining those who have peacefully exercised their right to freedom of expression. However, the Chinese Constitution, under Article 35, provides for freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession, and of demonstration for all citizens. Moreover, the right to freedom of expression is protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China has signed. Amnesty International considers Shi Tao to be a prisoner of conscience, incarcerated for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression -- a right entrenched in international law and the Chinese Constitution.