China Geeks translates a post by lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan about a visit he received from officials after writing about a petitioner who was charged with extortion and blackmail:
I said, if the media wants to pay attention and speculate about things, I cannot control that, it’s their business. Writing a blog post with my commentary is exercising freedom of speech. I wrote two posts about this case, that wouldn’t just turn into rampant speculation, would it? If a reporter reads it, thinks it’s newsworthy and heads out to collect more information, that isn’t my fault! The real “master criminal” is not me, but the people who create cases like this!
If they could deal with the case according to the law, and remove the plaintiff from judging the case according to the law, I would have no way of calling anything into question. Of course, their meaning was that if I didn’t write a blog post, a reporter wouldn’t be able to see it, and thus won’t go off to interview and report. Only looking at it from this angle am I a “Master Criminal”.
Their searching me out to speak with me came from good intentions. They advised me: next time, be a little more discreet, don’t write this kind of blog post. I said, when I see or encounter injustice and inequality, if I don’t even dare to speak about it, ignore it, adopt a superior attitude as though I were above it, those who enforce the law unjustly will achieve even more of their dreams. If they’re afraid the people will criticize and call things into question, then they should just not do anything illegal!
