China, Number 1 With a Bullet

Newsmax has a report today on the dubious honor the Chinese hold of having jailed more journalists than any other country for six years in a row:

China is No. 1 in the world in jailing journalists – for the sixth year in a row.

At the end of last year 42 reporters and other media professionals were behind bars in China, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

The two-year-old regime of Hu Jintao has been stepping up its repression, holding two journalists working for foreign news organizations.
Zhao Yan, a researcher for the New York Times, and Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong citizen and correspondent for Singapore’s Strait Times, have been in detention for months.

China has charged them both with espionage and revealing state secrets, charges that are punishable by death - a sentencing that sends a chilling message to the nation's 150,000 domestic journalists and more than 480 foreign reporters based in China, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

From what I understand one of the reporters was arrested after broadcasting a report that Hu Jintao had dodged his duty in the Beijing National Guard.