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International Press Institute calls on U.S. President to raise issue of press freedom with China during presidential visit next month

02 November 2009 12:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. International Press Institute (IPI) called on U.S. President Barack Obama to raise issue of press freedom with China during presidential visit next month, IPI told International Eurasia Press Fund, APA reports. According to the appeal, an Uighur former website editor and journalist, Hailaite Niyazi, has been detained since 1 October, when he was taken from his home by Chinese police. Niyazi was the former manager and editor of Uighurbiz.net, and had previously worked for state-run newspapers.
Ilham Tohti, a Beijing-based academic, and owner of Uighurbiz, told the Associated Press that Niyaziâ€™s family had been informed on 4 October that he was suspected of endangering national security, and believed that the arrest may have been connected to interviews he gave to foreign media in the aftermath of the July 2009 riots in the Xinjiang province.

According to IPI, China has also clamped down on online and phone communication in the Xinjiang region. According to news reports, the internet is still heavily censored in the region, with as many as 85% of the websites dedicated to the Uighur community unreachable within Xinjiang.