Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Chinese independent journalist Huang Xueqin, also known under the name of Sophia Huang, who covered the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong last summer and the #MeToo movement in 2018. She was arrested on October 17th in her home province of Guangdong under the ill-defined charge of “making trouble and picking quarrels”, an accusation often used by the regime against journalists which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
“Huang bravely addressed societal topics that are of the highest importance for the Chinese public and should never have been apprehended”, insists Cédric Alviani, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) East-Asia bureau head, who requests “her immediate release and that of all other journalists detained in China.”
Huang, 30, originally planned to go back to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as a graduate law student but had her travel documents confiscated in August.
China is the largest prison in the world for journalists with at least 120 detainees and ranks 177th out of 180 countries and territories in the RSF World Press Freedom Ranking 2019.
