At least three cyber-dissidents arrested since President Hu Jintao took over

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) strongly protested today at the arrest and secret imprisonment of at least three cyber-dissidents since China's new president, Hu Jintao, took office last month and said it showed the new leader had no intention of relaxing his predecessor's crackdown on pro-democracy activity on the Internet. It called for the immediate and unconditional release of the three, along with 31 other cyber-dissidents in prison for posting material on the Internet about the ruling Communist Party. After the detention of Liu Di and Ouyang Yi in recent weeks, the arrest about a month ago in Beijing of a third cyber-dissident, Li Yibin, a 28-year-old computer science graduate, was disclosed today by the organisation Human Right in China. Li had been involved in producing the online magazine Democracy and Freedom, using the pseudonyms "Springtime" and "Spring Snow." Human Rights in China fears very many more pro-democracy activists have been secretly arrested this month and last.