freedom of expression – Page 2

31/03/2015 News

‘I was criminalized for expressing my views’: Writer Tashi Rabten in a recent interview a year after release from prison

Tashi Rabten is a Tibetan writer and poet in the Tibetan province of Amdo, present-day Sichuan Province. He was released last year in March after serving a four-year sentence at Mianyang Prison in Sichuan. He was a student at the North-West University for Nationalities and wrote for the now-banned Tibetan language journal Shar Dungri (‘Eastern Conch Mountain’) and also published Trag-yig (‘Blood Letters’), a compilation of his poems, notes and writings on the situation in Tibet following the 2008 protests.

In a recent conversation that is being circulated on various social media sites, Tashi Rabten talks about his experiences as a university student and political prisoner, and his newfound faith in the power of poetry.

04/02/2014 News

Tibet high on agenda at ‘Human Rights Human Wrongs’ Film Fest

A documentary film on the state of the freedom of expression in Tibet will premiere at the ‘Human Rights Human Wrongs’ (‘HRHW’) film festival in Oslo, Norway this week marking the launch of the international leg of the ‘Banned Expression: Support Free Speech in Tibet’ campaign.

The documentary film titled ‘Banned Expression in Tibet’ is produced by Voice of Tibet (VOT) radio service. The first screening of the documentary will be held at the “HRHW” film festival, a one of its kind film festival in the Scandinavia, organized by the Oslo Dokumentarkino (Oslo Documentary Cinema) in collaboration with many human rights organizations and institutions.

21/11/2013 News

Banned Expression: Campaign to protect free speech in Tibet

‘Banned Expression: Support Free Speech in Tibet’ is an awareness campaign focussing on the Right to Freedom of Opinion, Expression and Information in Tibet.

Over a hundred Tibetan writers, poets, artists, intellectuals and cultural figures have been arrested, tortured and imprisoned since the 2008 uprising in Tibet. By daring to refute China’s official narrative of events surrounding the 2008 Uprising, these courageous Tibetans represent a significant new challenge to the Chinese authorities.

China is implementing mass surveillance and propaganda campaigns under the rubric of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s “mass line” policy in Tibet. New regulations on the internet and phone use have been implemented since 2011 to block information and censor communication. Book and journals are banned; websites shut down and online contents deleted and censored in real time by armies of Chinese government censors. China has vowed again to block all images, information and teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Tibet by setting “nets in the sky” and “traps on the ground” .

14/08/2013 News / Thematic Reports

Dissenting Voices: TCHRD releases English translation of Ancestors’ Tomb

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is pleased to announce the release of Ancestors’ Tomb, a book written by a Tibetan university student in Ngaba in the Tibetan province of Amdo.

Mar Jang-nyug (pseudonym) is a Tibetan writer who was born and brought up in Marong village of Ngaba in the Tibetan province of Amdo. Ancestors’ Tomb reveals the oppressive nature of Chinese rule in Tibet. With his writings, Mar Jang-nyug bears witness to the suffering and pain endured by Tibetans and exposes the authoritarian workings of the Chinese government.

Through an array of prose and poetry, the book describes the dictatorial nature of the Chinese government, its relentless marginalization of Tibetan language and culture, destruction of environment through unrestricted deforestation and mining and its ever-increasing violations of human rights.

07/08/2013 News

Tibetan writer and four others sentenced to more than 5 years in prison

Tibetan writer, teacher and father of two, Gangkye Drupa Kyab

A popular Tibetan writer and four others have been sentenced to prison early this month by Chinese authorities in Nyagchu (Ch: Yajiang) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

On 1 August 2013, the County People’s Court in Nyagchu County sentenced the writer, Gangkye Drupa Kyab, to five years and six months in prison for alleged political activities. Four other Tibetan men were also sentenced. Samdup received five years’ prison term while Sheygyal and Yudrang each were sentenced to two years. Drensel received three years prison sentence, according to information obtained by Tibet Express, an exile Tibetan newspaper.

All of them were sentenced for allegedly being members of a secret political group called “Marshog Ngogol Tsogpa” (Anti-Communist Party Association). Both Samdup, 32, and Yudrang were detained on 13 June 2012.

06/08/2013 News

Ancestors’ Tomb: ‘My Mother was a maidservant of the Communist Party’

An old Chinese Communist Party propaganda poster.

Mar Jang-nyug (pseudonym) is a Tibetan writer born and brought up in Marong village of Ngaba in the Tibetan province of Amdo. TCHRD presents another translated and edited essay from the author’s forthcoming book, Ancestors’ Tomb. This essay was written on 25 March 2012, a few months after the death of the author’s mother.

Ancestors’ Tomb is replete with accounts of unaddressed grievances and unfulfilled aspirations, at once personal and yet political, as is demonstrated by the tortured body of the author’s mother and her legacy to her son of a wounded heart, both bearing witness to brutalities bygone and present.

The invoking of memories about Ngaba during the nascent stages of Chinese rule is telling in that it gives a historical context – resonant with the underlying Buddhist theme of cause and effect – to the spate of self-immolation protests in Tibet in recent years.

13/06/2013 News

Two Tibetan singers secretly sentenced but whereabouts unknown

Tibetan singer Chakdor sentenced to two years in prison. His whereabouts remain unknown. — Tibetan singer Chakdor sentenced to four years in prison. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Two Tibetan singers who were detained last year for releasing a music album titled “Agony of Unhealed Wounds” had been secretly sentenced to four years in prison in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County in Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

According to reliable information received by TCHRD, singers Pema Trinley, 22, and Chakdor, 32, both hailing from Meuruma nomadic village, had recorded and distributed a music DVD containing songs about current situation in Tibet including self-immolation protests, as well as songs in praise of the Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama, Kirti Rinpoche (exiled head of the Kirti monastery) and Lobsang Sangay (exiled Tibetan political leader). In July 2012, days after the release of the music album, both singers were arrested in the neighbouring Machu (Ch: Maqu) County in Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. For over six months, they were detained in Ngaba County, sources told TCHRD, before their secret sentencing in February this year.

13/08/2010 Thematic Reports

Dissenting Voices (2010): Targeting the Intellectuals Writers and Cultural Figures

The year 2008 marked the largest series of protests against Chinese rule in Tibet since 1959. A vibrant literary and cultural resurgence has emerged in Tibet in the wake of the 2008 Uprising, and feelings of Tibetan nationalism have perhaps never been so strong. Courageous Tibetans are gradually rising to share their views of life under Chinese rule. Communist Party…