A new post over at Glutter tells us that Reporters without Borders is making itself heard over the arrest and imprisonment of Chinese who express their opinions on the Internet:

Reporters Without Borders today urged Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to immediately release Du Daobin, the author of many essays on human rights and democracy, who was arrested on 29 October in Yingcheng, in the central province of Hubei.

Du is one of the organisers of a campaign to draw attention to the imprisonment of the young Internet user Liu Di by urging people to shut themselves in the dark during the day to “simulate detention.”

“We regret that the Chinese authorities have turned a deaf hear to the growing number of voices speaking out in China and abroad against their policy of cracking down on cyber-dissidents,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said.

[….]

Liu is a sociology student who has been detained without being tried since 7 November 2002 for messages she posted in Internet forums. A total of 39 people are currently imprisoned in China because of their Internet activities.

As I said yesterday, it is great to see that this case is finally winning the media attention it deserves. As in the recent case of Ma Shiwen, this pressure will most likely result in the “cyber-dissidents'” freedom.

The complete text of Reporters without Borders’ statement can be found at their site. (You can click the link up in the left-hand corner for English.)