China: RSF calls for the release of independent photojournalist Du Bin

RSF has just received confirmation from local sources that Chinese journalist and photojournalist Du Binhas been held by the authorities at the Shunyi Detention Centre in Beijing since 15 October 2025. The former New York Timesphotographer is accusedof "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", an offence punishable by five years in prison and routinely usedby the Chinese regime to suppress journalists and press freedom defenders.

The photojournalist's family has repeatedly requested to see the written detention order, but the authorities have refused to provide one. The officer in charge of the case has also declined to give further information, citing confidentiality. Through his photos, books and documentary films, Du Bin has extensively documentedhuman rights abuses committed by the Chinese regime. His work has been published in major international media outlets, including The New York Times, Timemagazine and The Guardian.

Over a decade of harassment

Because of his commitment to documenting state abuses, Du Bin has been targeted by the authorities for many years. He was detainedfor one month in 2013 after releasing a documentary film about the torture of female detainees in a women's labour camp in north-eastern China, and was briefly taken into custody in 2020-again on charges of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble"-in a case linked to his publications.

Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has reinstated a media culture reminiscent of the Mao era, in which independent reporting is criminalised and severely punished. This crackdown on the press is now being exported abroad through China's deliberate strategy to suppress criticism and spread its authoritarian model.

China is the world's biggest jailer of journalists, with 121 currently detained, and ranks 178th out of 180 countries and territories in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index.