China: Wu Hao released

Following nearly five months in prison, blogger, documentary maker and American permanent resident Wu Hao has been released, as noted in a July 11 post on his sister Nina's blog:

刚刚得到家里电话, 被告知皓子出来了.谢谢大家的关心,但他需要清静一阵子.
如果还有什么消息,将更新在这个BLOG.

Just got a call at home and informed that Wu Hao is out. Thank you everyone for your concern, but he needs some silence for now. If there is any new information it will be posted on this blog.

Set up soon after her little brother's arrest by Chinese authorities, Nina's blog has served as the centerpoint in the campaign to have Hao released. English translations of each of her posts recounted the hostility Nina received in repeated unsuccesful attempts to gain any information on her brother's whereabouts. Frustrated and fearing how the news would affect her parents’ health, in late May she wrote that her brother had been denied access to a lawyer.

Support was strong across the blogsphere, with hundreds of fellow bloggers posting on Nina and Hao's story, as well as putting up Free Hao Wu tags. Support was there from some mainstream media, with the Wall Street Journal chipping in just a week ago, and a piece written in The Washington Post by Global Voices Online co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon coinciding with Chinese president Hu Jintao's visit to America:

“Hao turned 34 this week. He personifies a generation of urban Chinese who have flourished thanks to the Communist Party's embrace of market-style capitalism and greater cultural openness. He got his MBA from the University of Michigan and worked for EarthLink before returning to China to pursue his dream of becoming a documentary filmmaker. He and his sister, Nina Wu, who works in finance and lives a comfortable middle-class life in Shanghai, have enjoyed freedoms of expression, travel, lifestyle and career choice that their parents could never have dreamed of. They are proof of how U.S. economic engagement with China has been overwhelmingly good for many Chinese.”

Several members of the U.S. Congress wrote letters of concern on Hao's behalf. We are also grateful for some diplomacy – both quiet and open – conducted elsewhere. Late last week free speech group Reporters Without Borders announced a successful lobbying attempt aimed at the European Parliament, which ratified a resolution on freedom of expression on the internet. Included in the resolution is a list of nine imprisoned bloggers and cyberdissidents, one of which is Hao.

10 comments

  • Hao Wu is out of detention

    According to his sister Nina’s blog today her brother, Hao Wu, has been released by the Chinese authorities. He’s been detained without charge or trial and denied access to any visit by lawyer, family or friend, since 22 February and…

  • […] After 5 months of incarceration in a Chinese jail – and we all know the reason those premises got their 5-star rating – he has been released. The reason he was their guest for so long? Being a blogger and speaking his mind! […]

  • Some Good News

    Hao Wu, a Chinese blogger and filmmaker, has been released from police detention. Previous coverage here and here….

  • […] update: Hao Wu Released   […]

  • […] Good news at Global Voices: Following nearly five months in prison, blogger, documentary maker and American permanent resident Wu Hao has been released, as noted in a July 11 post on his sister Nina’s blog: […]

  • Extra! Extra! 3D maps, a new world record and a blogger freed

    A new traffic website and hotline is going to help drivers avoid the places where traffic is snarled up. Yet 10,000 more cars hit the road every month.Liu Xiang could probably have run the distance from our home to our dinner appointment in less time t…

  • Hao Wu you hold in your hands, the most precious gift of all: FREEDOM. The freedom to express your thoughts. your love and your vision. The freedom to be who you want to be. Hao Wu has the right to privacy and we should respect it at all times, its indeed the beginning of all freedom.

    Ray

  • Good news that this young man has finally been released from jail by the PRC authorities. Could it be that thousands of outspoken voices from the blogosphere (i.e. the GVO community) combined with critical news coverage from the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post are having an impact on Beijing’s domestic and foreign policies?? Nah, no chance of that happening anytime soon. Maybe they just cut Hao Wu loose as a gesture of kindness before the upcoming G8 Summit in Russia.

    Nonetheless it is good to see that Hao Wu is out of jail (for now anyways). You think that they will let him come back to the States anytime soon or speak openly in China about his ordeal behind bars? Naaah, I doubt it.

  • […] Hao Wu is Free!. Following nearly five months in prison, blogger, documentary maker and American permanent resident Wu Hao has been released, as noted in a July 11 post on his sister Nina’s blog. […]

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