Jailed for e-mail
Software engineer Lin Hai and physicist Wang Youcai were jailed earlier this year for distributing pro-democracy newsletters via e-mail to more than 250,000 other Chinese dissidents and overseas supporters, DFN officials said. The men have been charged with "inciting the overthrow of state power," according to the DFN.
The DFN, along with groups including the Committee of Concerned Scientists and the Committee on the International Freedom of Scientists, have joined forces to urge Internet users from across the world to demand the dissidents' release.
Political tool?
The e-mail protest coincides with the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the United Nations General Assembly, which took place 50 years ago Thursday.
The rise of the Internet and the distribution of powerful data-scrambling encryption programs has given international human rights organizations increasingly sophisticated methods ofpressuring governments who might otherwise crack down even harder on dissidents.
The first such success was after the first Zapatista rebellion in southern Mexico, when human rights organizations used the Internet to monitor government action from afar. Since then, online communications have begun taking a more important part in democracy movements across the globe, particularly in Asian countries such as Myanmar and China.
A form of protest
"We wanted to use the Internet to defend Lin Hai and Wang Youcai since they are being punished for sending e-mail," said Bobson Wong, executive director of the DFN site, whichis devoted to publicizing the writings of political prisoners from repressive regimes around the world.
A form for sending protest e-mails to Chinese officials is available on the DFN site. Physical mail addresses and telephone numbers are also provided.
"As in traditional letter writing campaigns, the more participation we can generate, the greater the impact," said Audrey Chapman, director of the Science and Human Rights Program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which is also supporting the protest effort. The group will spread the word about the protest to its members, and is urging Internet users to do likewise, Chapman said.
