JOURNALIST SIGN PETITION

The Hong Kong Journalists Association is launching a signature
campaign to demand that Beijing immediately release journalist
Gao Yu and many others who wereprisoned for exercising their rights
to freedom of expression. Gao Yu, former deputy editor of Beijing's
"Economic Weekly" and a freelance journalist for newspapers and
magazines in China and Hong Kong, has been in jail for 5 years with
her health deteriorating. She was sentenced to 6 years in prison in
November 1994 for "leaking state secrets to parties outside
mainland China."

The petition will be submitted to the Chinese President Jiang Zemin
who will be visiting Hong Kong for the first anniversary of the take
over of Hong Kong. A special heading for all the signatures outside
Hong Kong will be created stating that they are concerned groups
and organisations which support the petition.

ENDS