HK journalists slam Beijing for press gag

       More than 1,300 Hong Kong journalists yesterday joined in a signature campaign accusing China of "blatant trampling on press freedom".
       The campaign, featuring full-page advertisements in Hong Kong newspapers, follows the detention and beating of reporters from the former British colony sent to cover news events in China.
       Three television journalists were detained and beaten up as they tried to cover ethnic unrest in the western city of Urumqi in September and were later accused of inciting unrest among protesters.
       In a separate incident, another Hong Kong TV journalist was accused of possessing drugs in what she claimed was a ploy to prevent her covering the trial of an anti-corruption campaigner.
       Advertisements condemning the actions have been taken out by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong one day ahead of Chinese National Day celebrations.
       The advertisements, carrying the names of 1,300-plus signatories, said journalists were "angered by such violent stoppage of news coverage and blatant trampling on press freedom".
       They call on both the Sichuan and Xinjiang provincial governments to investigate the incidents, stop repression,pledge themselves to uphold press freedoms and punish guilty officials.
       The advertisement also calls for the Chinese government to abolish rules requiring journalists to apply for press permits to cover news in China and to open up dialogue with front-line journalists.
       A poll by the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Tuesday found support for the Beijing government in the city of 7 million had fallen to its lowest level in almost two years following the incident.
       Meanwhile, internet users in China have found more and more online roadblocks and dissidents have reported increased surveillance as the authorities nervously prepare to celebrate 60 years of communist rule.
       Social websites such as Facebook and Twitter that were blocked after deadly riots in Xinjiang in July, and sensitive sites including Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International were inaccessible in China yesterday.
       Some web users have seen their free proxy services, which allowed them to access sites blocked by government censors, wiped out in the run-up to Oct 1, China's National Day.