Several high profile legal experts, lawyers, and journalists are mounting public criticism of the corruption charges used against journalists with the Southern Metropolis News (Nanfang Dushi Bao). These critics argue that the corruption charges violate new constitutional guarantees protecting private property. Several of their appeals (in Chinese) are posted online by the Open Constitution Initiative.
Read an article by Agence France Presse here.
CPJ today also wrote a letter to President Hu Jintao protesting the arrests of the journalists.
