Chinese Government Targets New York Times

News coverage has been inconvenient for authoritarian officials

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the Chinese government's readiness to violate the confidentiality of sources, which has jeopardized the safety of New York Times journalists and their sources in China.

The newspaper has been subjected to growing harassment in recent months. An article about outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao's fortune was censored. The authorities refused to issue or renew visas and accreditation for its journalists. And now it turns out that it has been the target of cyber-attacks for months.

"If hackers working for the government were ordered to spy on such a prominent newspaper as the New York Times, it means that the authorities are trying to identify its sources in order step up their persecution of dissidents," Reporters Without Borders said.