An international press freedom group yesterday welcomed the release of the Chinese dissident journalist, Gao Yu, but condemned Beijing's imprisonment of journalists under state security laws.
"We welcome her release. . . but her imprisonment was unjustified in the first place," the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) said in a statement.
"Also, this abusive detention caused her health to deteriorate. . . and Gao never received adequate treatment," it said.
RSF said 13 journalists were currently in detention in China, where journalists who obtain inside information in the course of their work are often jailed under laws relating to state security.
The group said it was particularly concerned over the whereabouts of a journalist, Ma Tao, who was due to be released last October.
"Repeated inquiries concerning her fate have met with no reply," RSF said.
Gao was released on Monday on medical parole, and allowed to return to her family in Beijing in time for the traditional Lunar New Year celebrations.
Her release came just two weeks ahead of a visit to China by the US Secretary of State, Mrs Madeleine Albright, on March 1st.
RSF condemned Gao's treatment during her detention, saying that her family's attempts at getting medicines to her failed.
"Her health is no good," Gao's son Zhao Meng said. "She has high blood pressure, heart disease and kidney problems." He said there were no plans for her to follow other prominent dissidents to exile in the United States, ostensibly to seek medical treatment.
China released prominent dissident Wei Jingsheng shortly after President Jiang Zemin returned from a high-profile trip to the United States in November 1997.
Gao was arrested in October 1993 and sentenced a year later to six years imprisonment for "divulging state secrets" overseas when she worked for the Hong Kong magazine Mirror Monthly and the now-defunct Overseas Chinese Daily.