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Australia concerned over journalist Cheng Lei, detained in China for a year
- Foreign Minister Marise Payne says there is still a lack of transparency over reasons for her detention and basic standards of justice are expected
- Friends and former colleagues also voice ‘grave concerns’ for the television anchor and call for her immediate release in an open letter
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The Australian government is seriously concerned about the detention and welfare of an Australian journalist who has been held in Beijing for one year, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Thursday.
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Cheng Lei, who worked as a television anchor for Chinese state media, was formally arrested in February on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas.
She has been detained since August 2020 and was last visited by Australian consular officials on July 26.
“We are particularly concerned that one year into her detention, there remains a lack of transparency about the reasons for Ms Cheng’s detention,” Payne said in a statement.
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Cheng was a business news anchor on Chinese state media’s English-language channel CGTN, where she had worked for almost a decade.
Her children, aged nine and 11, were visiting their grandmother in Australia during school closures in Beijing caused by the Covid-19 pandemic when she was detained.
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