Brian Conley Jailed in Beijing

Wow,

That's pretty scary, I'm sorry to hear about your friend. It seems that Citizen Journalism can be dangerous business. Mind you, this is a crowning paranoid moment for China, so it's no surprise.

As for spreading the word, this issue interests me, and seems like a worthwhile cause. I'll dig deeper into Citizen Journalists in China, along with seeking avenues to contribute. What means have you been thinking of trying with messaging?

Thanks for opening our eyes on this subject Chris. It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Chris,

I have been encouraging people to Digg this to get Brian and other detained folks more attention. If you can send people there to Digg it, that'd be awesome.

http://tinyurl.com/6698yo

He's quite fortunate that the Olympics are occurring, or he might have just disappeared quietly into the night, period. China is not a free society. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press do not exist there, and have not in quite some time. While I applaud the notion of promoting a liberated Tibet, going to China with protest groups isn't going to make a whit of a difference except for a scenic tour of Chinese detention centers.

@Christopher Penn, while I agree with Mr. Conley being fortunate for timing, your applaud for liberation of Tibet, and the notion of not making a difference; there's still a point to all this that can help his cause. A further awareness? Perhaps with "imprisonment" during the Olympics as well as some Internet buzz, a more global awareness of both citizen journalism and Tibet will come of it?

As a side note, I tweeted my friend in China to the freetibet2008.org source article, and to no one's surprise it's been censored by the Chinese government so he can't see it. But if there's more posts and more discussion, they can't censor every site. Baby steps?

I agree with Ian Cheung. This is going to be major publicity for his cause. Great timing, too!

If this has to do with the liberation of Tibet wake up activist. You are playing into the hands of the CIA and American hegmony. Get your facts straight before you go spouting CIA disinformation in a communist state. He deserves to be locked up if he's spewing this crap.

Before you start worrying about human rights abuses & dissent in other countries. Which by the way are created by your own US of A. Start worrying about the human rights abuses and the whittling away of your rights at home. The homefront is where this war needs to be waged. Wake up activist time is running out. Don't let them play you like they always have. Then we can worry about other countries. I suppose next you'll be protesting Georgia's right to wage war om innocent people or perhaps you supported the invasion on Iraq due to human rights abuses. Do you dolts believe everything you read in the MSM. Oh if it's in the times it has to be true. What a joke.

@JJ, I agree that energy spent in the one's homeland and culture (I'm a Canadian, but let's face it the U.S. pretty much owns us culturally) is more worthwhile, the idea of free speech and truth is something that is worth promoting, especially to secretive countries like China. I'm not "worried" about Mr. Conley's cause, personally I think he should just get a slap on wrist, then a plane ticket (paid by his own credit card) back home. I'm worried about U.S. citizens being jailed for demonstrating.

But I do agree with you the U.S. is messed up enough. Look at your elections, as if it should even be close. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but the media may still control politics, and that isn't right. Wow, huge deviation. There's really countless things "broken" with your great nation, because it is great in many ways.

I personally don't understand why people like Mr. Conley worrying about other peoples' problems so much, maybe they're into ethnic women? Or maybe he's really short and feels taller in other nations? Or 2nd world people look up at them for being an American (although in most countries he'd probably do better saying he's Canadian)?

Come to think of it, you make a good point JJ, a bit rough around the edges, but I like your style. I'm considering retracting my original sentiment and siding with you on this one. Let that guy reap his own demise. After all, you're messing with CHINA. The Chinese are serious people. I may be Chinese in race, but I'm as N. American as the next pop culture geek. Is that guy high or something?

(btw, with your first sentence... "dissent" is a verb, you may have meant "distant")

my bad, you may have meant dissent.

I put a quick diary up at Daily Kos in hopes of drawing some attention.

You are a good friend, and I hope we hear some good news soon.

I was so sorry to read this post, as I had seen some of his work, and I want his voice back, dammit!

panicbean

I am with SFT and we've posted an update on the situation at our site: http://freetibet2008.org/globalactions/citizenj...

We just heard from S F T that all 6 have been put on a plane toLA and will be arriving in 12 hours (I have no clue as to flight length vs time change vs date change). The important thing is that they are free. Spread this around.