Citizen Journalist Tweets About His Own Detention

Chinese citizen journalist Zhou ‘Zuola’ Shuguang has used microblogging service Twitter as he was detained by officials, Global Voices Online (GVO) has reported.

Zuola, who has used his blog to publish his own investigations into incidents such as the recent Chinese earthquake and the cover-up of a teenager’s murder, recently purchased a Blackberry and has been sending updates with the device to the Twitterberry service.

According to translations of his tweets by GVO, Zuola was forced to leave his parents house in a car by officials from the Meitanba Mining Group:

Zuola has since reported that he is under ‘town arrest’ and cannot leave the town of Meitanba:

 

Chinese citizen journalist, Zhou ‘Zuola’ Shuguang was today placed under a kind of ‘town arrest’ by Chinese authorities.  Apparently he was able to tweet the incident, oh the joys of twitter, and his followers quickly got the word out.

The authorities seemed to be uncomfortable with his intention to travel to Beijing and blog about the olympic games.  Zuola knew he would be visited by the authorities today and had tweeted about to let everybody know.

Aware of the rucus he was causing he decided against going to Beijing, and was at home when the ….’government people’ came for him.  He was detained for a bout an hour and released, and informed that he would not be allowed to leave his hometown for the time being, and told that if he left he would be brought back.

Global Voices writes that this is the second time Zuola has be threatened for his blogging.

Very breaking news, but Chinese citizen reporter Zhou “Zuola” Shuguang has just tweeted his own detention as it was happening on Wednesday afternoon China time.

(As of 17:15, Zuola was back at his computer; he seems to have been placed under some sort of ‘town arrest'. Updates below)

Zuola recently bought a Blackberry 8320 to help him with his citizen reporting endeavors, and he appears to have been able to use it along with Twitterberry to send out a few short messages as he was being escorted from his home into a vehicle and driven off:

15:52:
煤炭坝长沙矿业集团的保卫处刘处长带了三个人来接我回煤炭坝镇。吓坏我父母了。

@zuola: Head of security at Meitanba Mining Group Director Liu w/ 3 others taking me now back to Meitanba Village, scared my parents.

16:02
我被要求上他们的车，我要父母确认今天的事实，记住何时何地跟睡接触，坐什么车牌走了。我很好，在他们车内，感觉象是被截访。

@zuola: I've been made to get into their car. I want my parents to confirm what has happened today, what time and place and w/ who, the license plate number of the car I was taken away in. I'm fine, in their car, it feels a bit like I'm being intercepted.

16:08
上午借口来找计划生育违归的俩人同保卫处长一起来的，果然是冲我来的。

@zuola: The two people who came this morning under the pretense that I'd violated the one child policy are here with Security Dir. Liu now. Turns out they've forced me to go with them.

16:28
谢谢所有关心我的人，我还在车上。

@zuola: Thank you everyone for your attention. I'm still in the vehicle.

Earlier this morning Zuola tweeted that he wouldn't be online today as he was being visited by “government people”: two from the birth planning office (mentioned above) following up on a report that he had violated China's one-child policy (Zuola has no children) and two to see take his parents out for “tea” and a chat.

Last month Zuola mentioned on his blog feeling nervous about being in Beijing for the Olympics as he had planned, and decided it better to sit it one out and return home to Meitanba, Hunan province. Prior to that he got busted in Shenyang just following the Yilishen incident, where he had traveled to do some citizen reporting for his blog.

Updates hopefully coming soon.

Updates:

17:16
我被长沙矿业集团保卫处刘处长把我从枫木桥接回煤炭坝了。他们要求我呆在煤炭坝就不管我，我一出去他们就要把我弄回来。我声明，我不是长沙矿业集团的员工，我爸在这个单位的前身退休13年了。

@zuola: Changsha Mining Group Security Director Liu has taken me from Fengmuqiao back to Meitanba. They've demanded that I stay in Meitanba and that if I do, they'll leave me alone. If I leave, they'll bring me back. I stated that that I am not an employee of Changsha Mining Group, although my dad was until he retired from there 13 years ago.

17:20
我坐湘A94360回煤炭坝的，车上刚才四个人。

@zuola: I'm in vehicle 湖A 94369 on the way back to Meitanba, there were four people in the vehicle just now.

17:23
看来是宁乡县国保大队、长沙矿业集团、枫木桥乡政府联合行动，工作效率还蛮高。先侦知我的手机离开煤炭坝镇区域，然后让枫木桥乡政府打前哨，再通知长沙矿业集团保卫处开车来接人，把我送回煤炭坝就完事了。

@zuola: It seems they were a joint task force from the Ningxia Guobao squad, Changsha Mining Group, Fengmuqiao Village government, pretty effective work. First they checked to see that my mobile phone had left the Meitanba area, then they sent Fengmuqiao government people to stand guard, later notifying the Changsha Mining Group Security Division to drive over and pick me up, and take me back to Meitanba, and that was it.

17:25
声明一下，除了我被强行要求我坐他们的车回煤炭坝之外，我现在的人身是自由的。不过，我希望有记者来长沙陪我去北京，那样会让他们不知所措，估计会是一件很生动的故事。

@zuola: I'll just state that aside from having been forced into their vehicle to be taken back to Meitanba, my person is free now. However, I do hope that a journalist will be able to accompany me to Beijing, they won't know what to do then and I expect that it will make for a very vivid story.

17:31
我被长沙矿业集团保卫处刘处长把我从枫木桥接回煤炭坝了。他们要求我呆在煤炭坝就不管我，我一出去他们就要把我弄回来。我不是长沙矿业集团的人。

@zuola: Changsha Mining Group Security Director Liu took me from Fengmuqiao back to Meitanba. They've demanded that I stay in Meitanba and that if I do, they'll leave me alone. If I leave, they'll bring me back. I don't work for the Changsha Mining Group.