Australian journalist Cheng Lei.
Cheng,46,has been kept in a cell at a detention facility in China with limited fresh air and natural light and has been masked,blindfolded and restrained in meetings with Australian consular officials.
The Chinese-born Melbourne mother of two was detained on August 13 last year on suspicion of illegally communicating state secrets overseas. The exact nature of the claims remains unknown and her family has always maintained her innocence.
Cheng’s friend,Lucy Hornby,a former China correspondent,said Cheng is a fair and professional reporter. “[She] is a nice person who doesn’t deserve this,” she said.
In the weeks leading up to her arrest,Cheng had become increasingly critical of the Chinese Communist Party’s handling of the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhanin a series of posts on Facebook. The arrest of the University of Queensland graduate coincided with a sharp deterioration in Australia-China relations over national security and human rights disputes. The diplomatic breakdown has left the Australian government unable to lobby for her release at a ministerial level.
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“We are concerned about the wellbeing of her beloved children,aged 10 and 12,” the letter from 59 friends,colleagues and prominent journalists said. “We are concerned about the chilling affect her arrest has on the practice of journalism,which has never been more critical.”
The letter was also signed by the UNESCO chair in journalism Peter Greste,and her former colleague CGTN colleagues Tadek Markowski and now Sky News Washington correspondent Annelise Nielsen.