In the early afternoon of November 17, several national security officers forcibly entered the Nanjing home of citizen journalist Sun Lin, with neighbours reportedly hearing an altercation between the journalist and police. Sun, known to report under the pen name ‘Jie Mu’, was transported to the Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital between 2.30 and 3 p.m. He was pronounced dead at 5.45 p.m.
Following his killing, the family of the slain journalist were summoned by police to the hospital and held there for several hours. According to reports by the United States-congress funded outlet, Radio Free Asia, the journalist sustained significant injuries to his head, and his clothes were torn. His family, however, have been refused access to his body.
The reasons behind the raid are currently unclear. In early November, a joint operation between Nanjing and Wuhan law enforcement agencies seized a new book penned by Sun Lin sent to a friend living in Wuhan, confiscating it before its reception. Some outlets have claimed the raid was due to videos Sun Lin had shared on social media, depicting protests against Xi Jinping during his recent attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco.
Sun Lin, previously a citizen journalist for the Boxun News Network, Borderless and other media outlets, was known for his human rights reporting and advocacy. The journalist was jailed for four years in December 2018 on charges of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ in Nanjing, after he had taken photos outside the trial of a human rights activist, and made pro-democracy social media posts. He previously served a four-year sentence in 2008 for his coverage of forced evictions and commemorators of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “The IFJ strongly condemns the killing of citizen journalist Sun Lin following a police raid on his home. China remains one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists and media workers, with the deliberately opaque police proceedings surrounding Sun Lin’s death obscuring the cause of his death. Chinese authorities must conduct an immediate and transparent investigation, making all findings available to the public and Sun Lin’s loved ones, and holding those responsible to account.”