A Chinese editor whose newspaper broke stories about China’s SARS outbreak and a fatal police beating has been ordered not to attend a ceremony to accept a United Nations press freedom award, a news report said Monday.
Cheng Yizhong, former editor-in-chief of the Southern Metropolis News in China’s southern province of Guangdong, was to receive the US$25,000 (euro19,000) award on Tuesday in Dakar, Senegal, the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong reported. Citing an unidentified source, it said he was ordered not to attend the ceremony.
Cheng’s acceptance speech for the award, “Upholding Common Sense in the Middle of Fear and Lies,” is available here (in Chinese).
