【英语中国】中国记者兼诗人师涛已提前获释

A Chinese journalist and poet whose jailing on charges of leaking state secrets led to sharp criticism of Yahoo Inc. from Congress and free-speech advocates has been released from prison early, a writers group said Sunday.

Shi Tao was released on Aug. 23, 15 months before the end of his 10-year sentence, the Independent Chinese PEN Center, a branch of the literary and human-rights organization PEN International, said in a statement.

The group's statement didn't say where Mr. Shi went after being released or why he was let out early, though it noted he had been due a sentence reduction. The writer 'needed time to adjust' and wasn't accepting interviews, said Patrick Poon, Hong Kong-based director of the Chinese PEN Center.

'We welcome the news of Shi Tao's early release, at a time when there seem to be increasingly long shadows over freedom of expression in China' the statement quoted Marian Botsford Fraser, chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee, as saying.

Calls to China's Ministry of Public Security went unanswered Sunday.

The Shi Tao case cast a light on the pitfalls foreign Internet companies face when operating in a market in which the government closely monitors information and suppresses dissent.

Mr. Shi was arrested in 2004 after he sent an email through Yahoo to a Chinese-language website based in the U.S. describing orders from Chinese propaganda authorities prohibiting reporting on the 15th anniversary of the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy movement. The writer, who was working as a reporter for a newspaper in the central province of Hunan, was identified by Chinese authorities with help from Yahoo China, then a unit of Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif.

In 2007, a U.S. congressional panel summoned Yahoo's then Chief Executive Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan to account for the company's role in the jailing of Mr. Shi and that of another Chinese writer, Wang Xiaoning, who was separately jailed for posting pro-democracy materials on a Yahoo group site.

'While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies,' the late Tom Lantos, then a Democratic congressman from California, told Messrs. Yang and Callahan after their testimony.

Mr. Callahan had told a previous congressional hearing that the company wasn't aware of the specific nature of the investigation into Mr. Shi. Evidence later came to light that Yahoo's lawyer in the region had received a document from the Chinese government that referred to suspected 'illegal provision of state secrets.'

Mr. Yang apologized in person to Mr. Shi's mother at the 2007 hearing, though the company maintained that it had no choice but to comply with the government's demands lest its employees in the region be subject to arrest for not cooperating.

Yahoo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent by email to the company's media-relations department.

Yahoo had transferred ownership of its China operations to Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group in 2005. Alibaba founder Jack Ma said at the time he would fully cooperate with the Chinese government were another conflict to arise between a Yahoo China email user and authorities in Beijing.

Alibaba shut down the Yahoo China email service on Aug. 18 and closed Yahoo's China web portal on Sept. 1, part of a previously announced plan to gradually wind down its Yahoo-branded operations in the country.

Mr. Shi's release comes as the Chinese government moves to exert more control online, particularly on the popular Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo. Propaganda authorities have recently taken aim at Sina Weibo's influential commentators with large numbers of followers, urging them to be more 'constructive' in what they write.

In August, authorities detained Chinese-American venture capitalist and Weibo celebrity Xue Manzi on suspicion of soliciting prostitutes. Many microbloggers saw his case as a warning to other commentators known as 'Big Vs' because their verified accounts are marked with a capital 'V' next to their names.

The Chinese PEN Center has served as the official international representative of Mr. Shi's family since shortly after his conviction in 2005.

Family members had been notified in November that Mr. Shi's sentence would be reduced in November, according to the Chinese PEN Center, though it remained unclear why authorities had decided to let him out early.

As in the U.S., China allows prisoners to apply for a sentence reduction based on good behavior, though the PEN Center's Mr. Poon said that China is scheduled to undergo a review of its human-rights record by the United Nations' Human Rights Council in October, so the government might have released the journalist as 'a show of good faith.'

Mr. Shi was a 2005 winner of the Committee to Protect Journalists' Press Freedom Award and in 2006 was given the Golden Pen of Freedom Award by the World Association of Newspapers.

一个作家组织周日称，此前因泄露国家机密指控被判入狱的中国记者兼诗人师涛已被提前释放。这起案件曾导致雅虎公司(Yahoo! Inc.)受到来自美国国会和言论自由倡导者的强烈谴责。

文学及人权组织国际笔会(PEN International)的分支独立中文笔会(Independent Chinese PEN Center)在一则声明中说，师涛在8月23日被释放，比他的10年刑期提前了15个月。

该组织的声明未透露师涛在被释放后去了哪里以及他为何被提前释放，但声明指出，他获得了减刑。独立中文笔会驻香港的潘嘉伟(Patrick Poon)说，师涛需要时间调整，目前不接受采访。

声明援引国际笔会的狱中作家委员会主席弗雷泽(Marian Botsford Fraser)的话称，我们对师涛被提前释放的消息表示欢迎；目前在中国，言论自由受到的控制似乎越来越多。

记者周日致电中国公安部，但电话无人接听。

师涛的案子凸显出外国互联网公司在政府密切监控信息和压制异见的市场运营时所面临的问题。

师涛在2004年被捕，此前他通过雅虎邮箱向一家驻美国的中文网站发送了一封电子邮件，邮件中介绍了中国宣传部门有关禁止在1989年天安门事件15周年纪念日报道相关内容的要求。师涛当时在湖南一家报社担任记者，中国有关部门借助雅虎中国(Yahoo China)的帮助确认了他的身份。当时雅虎中国是总部设在加州森尼韦尔的雅虎的子公司。

2007年，美国国会一个小组传唤雅虎时任首席执行长杨致远(Jerry Yang)以及法律总顾问卡拉汉(Michael Callahan)，要求其对该公司在师涛以及中国另一位作家王小宁被判入狱一案中的作用做出解释。王小宁因为在雅虎网站上发布支持民主的材料被判入狱。

时任民主党国会议员的兰托斯(Tom Lantos)在杨致远和卡拉汉发表证词后对他们说，虽说在科技和财务方面你们是巨人，但在道德上你们是矮子。

卡拉汉已经在此前的一个国会听证会上表示，雅虎当时并不了解师涛调查案的具体性质。之后有证据显示，雅虎在亚洲区的这名律师曾经从中国政府获得过一份文件，当中提到了涉嫌“违法提供国家机密”的内容。

杨致远在2007年的听证会上亲自向师涛的母亲致歉，但雅虎坚持认为当时该公司别无选择，只能按政府的要求去做，因为担心雅虎在该地区的员工会因不予配合而被逮捕。

雅虎未立即回复记者发给该公司媒体关系部门的寻求置评的电子邮件。

雅虎已在2005年将其中国业务的所有权转给中国互联网公司阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group)。阿里巴巴创始人马云(Jack Ma)当时说，如果雅虎中国电子邮件用户与中国政府有关部门之间再度发生此类矛盾，他将全面配合中国政府。

阿里巴巴在8月18日关闭了雅虎中国电子邮件服务，并在9月1日关闭了雅虎的中国门户网站。这是此前宣布的一个逐步结束雅虎品牌在中国业务的计划的一部分。

师涛获释的背景是，中国政府正在加大网络控制的力度，尤其是对新浪微博的控制。宣传部门近期将目标指向新浪微博上有大量粉丝的有影响力的评论人士，敦促他们发表更有“建设性”的微博内容。

今年8月份中国有关部门以涉嫌嫖娼为由对微博名人、风险投资家、华裔美国人薛蛮子予以拘留。许多微博用户认为这是在向其他“大V”发出警告。

独立中文笔会自师涛在2005年被定罪后不久一直担任师涛家庭的正式国际代表。

据独立中文笔会称，师涛家庭成员在去年11月份被告知师涛将在11月份获减刑，但仍不清楚有关部门为何决定提前将他释放。

与美国一样，中国允许表现良好的囚犯申请减刑，但潘嘉伟说，中国将在10月份接受联合国(United Nations)人权理事会(Human Rights Council)的人权评估，所以中国政府可能通过释放师涛来“表现诚意”。

师涛是2005年保护记者委员会(Committee to Protect Journalists)新闻自由奖(Press Freedom Award)得主，2006年他曾被世界报业协会(World Association of Newspapers)授予自由新闻金笔奖(Golden Pen of Freedom Award)。