Voices of Dissent: Freedom of Speech and Human Rights in China

This episode of ABC-TV Australia's newsmagazine Four Corners covers China's silencing of human rights activists in the months leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, despite assurances (and Western hopes) that the games would draw international attention, resulting in advances in human rights. Reporter Liz Jackson profiles noted Chinese activist Hu Jia, who remains in prison as a convicted subversive, and other accused dissidents, including attorney Teng Biao and Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser. Voices of Dissent includes interviews with the activists, members of their families, and their lawyers, discussing how the targeted individuals have been placed under police surveillance or house arrests, barred from publishing, seized and detained without formal charges or word to their families, and beaten and tortured (their crimes consist of publishing articles critical of the government and talking to foreign journalists). Beijing lawyers who have defended dissidents tell of being kidnapped, beaten, and threatened with disbarment (two of the interviewees have since lost their licenses to practice). The stories are reinforced by footage Hu Jia took of state security police camping outside his apartment and film of Jackson's own thwarted attempt to interview Hu Jia's wife, whose home was guarded by police. A thought-provoking look at dissidents and attorneys whose cases remain central to the question of human rights in China, this is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (M. Puffer-Rothenberg)