Journalists who have faced China's wrath for defending liberties

The annual report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said at least 250 journalists were imprisoned worldwide in the year 2019.

The Chinese government imprisoned at least 48 journalists in 2019, more than any other country, a rights watchdog said on December 11, 2019.

Jimmy Lai arrested on Monday for colluding with foreign forces.

Mainland-born Lai, who was smuggled into Hong Kong on a fishing boat when he was a penniless 12-year-old, is one of the most prominent democracy activists in the city and an ardent critic of Communist Party rule in Beijing.

His arrest came amid a crackdown on the pro-democracy opposition in Hong Kong that has drawn international criticism and raised fears for freedoms promised by Beijing under a "one country, two systems" formula.

According to media reports, Police detained Ding Lingjie, an editor of the human rights news website Minsheng Guancha,while she was visiting relatives in Zibo city, Shandong province, on September 22, 2017. 

She was arrested on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” However, the police later on said that the major reason for Ding’s detention is that she had allegedly “insulted a State leader” by uploading a video clip online that mocked President Xi Jinping.

Ding, along with her group, have reflected the Chinese government’s increased suppression of independent groups that document and report human rights abuses.

Chinese feminist and journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin was arrested in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou for allegedly disturbing public order in 2019.

Huang worked for state media in Guangzhou before going public in 2017 with her experience of workplace harassment, becoming a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement in China. She led the #WoYeShi in the country.

Huang had shared photos of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong on her social media accounts, however, it was not clear if this activity was related to her arrests.

She was released earlier this year. 

Chen Jieren was a former Chinese state media journalist turned anti-corruption blogger. 

Chen was detained in mid-2018 after he published two articles on his blog claiming corruption by Hunan party officials. On May 1, 2020, he was jailed for 15 years by a court in the southern province for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," extortion, blackmail and bribery, in what one human rights group said was an attempt to "punish him for his political speech on WeChat and other social media platforms."

According to the court, Chen "attacked and vilified the Communist Party and government" by publishing "false information" and "malicious speculation."

Lu Giang, a photojournalist, had gone missing while visiting Xinjiang in November 2018.  Xinjiang is the location of detention sites holding hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslim prisoners.

The journalist lived in New York and had come to China to lead a photography workshop in late October.

His family, living in New York, was informed a month and a half later by the Chinese police that he was arrested. 

Guang spent nearly 40 years documenting the effects of environmental destruction in rural and industrial regions of China.

The reasons for arrests are still unknown but many speculate that it was related to documenting the plight of Uighur Muslims.