Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the way police
officers manhandled, detained and threatened writer and press freedom
activist Liu Xiaobo on the evening of 4 June 2008 as he was leaving his
Beijing home with his wife, Liu Xia, to go and have dinner at someone
else's home.

The police grabbed him by the head, neck and arm, led him away and held him
for several hours. They finally escorted him back to his home and told him
he could not go out.

The press freedom organisation stresses its support for Liu, who in 2004
was awarded the Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France prize for
defending press freedom.

"The behaviour of these police officers on the anniversary of the Tiananmen
Square massacre shows that, 19 years later, the authorities continue to
crack down on those who campaign peacefully for the rehabilitation of the
victims of the events of 4 June 1989," Reporters Without Borders said.

Liu is a leading human rights figure. His writings include an essay
condemning the frequent use of subversion charges - which are brought
against many cyber-dissidents - as a "legal aberration."

Liu spent two years in prison after publicly defending the June 1989
pro-democracy movement. He was sentenced to another three years of
reeducation through work in 1996 for questioning the Communist Party's
monopoly on party political activity.

For further information on Liu Xiaobo's previous arrests see:
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/59082

For further information, contact Vincent Brossel, RSF, 47, rue Vivienne,
75002 Paris, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 70, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51,
e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.rsf.org