ABOUT CIRCLE 19
Who we are
Circle 19 for the Right to Information in the People’s Republic of China is an independent group composed of media practitioners and experts from the Chinese diaspora and the international community that aims to advocate for the right to information on the basis of Chinese intellectual sources.
Circle 19 bases its advocacy on Chinese intellectual references, which demonstrate that the right to information has always been present in Chinese history, reaffirm the importance of independent journalism for contemporary China, and put forward the necessity of the right to information for the development of the PRC.
The group’s name, Circle 19, refers to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that enshrines the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
Circle 19 was initiated in 2019 and now gathers around thirty journalists, scholars, and China experts whose details are not public for security reasons.
The group is currently represented by six spokesperson, namely Chang Ping, award-winning journalist, Kris Cheng, Hong Kong freelance journalist, Filip Noubel, managing director of Global Voices, Steve Vines, co-founder and co-director of Hong Kong Media Overseas (HKMO), Xiao Qiang, China Digital Times founder and chief editor, and Zhao Sile, former award-winning journalist and PhD candidate at the University of California.
The group is supported by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
What we strive for
Circle 19 strives to develop and disseminate a narrative countering the Chinese regime’s with factual elements and undeniable proofs that the right to information is essential to the development of Chinese society. Circle 19’s production aspires to become a reference for academics, human rights advocates and politicians.
The surge of demand for independent information in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) during the pandemic and, more recently, during the “A4 protests,” demonstrates the interest of the Chinese public towards independent information regardless of the official discourse and against the backdrop of increased censorship and information control.
What we do
We offer the Chinese public with factual information to counter the biased narrative propagated by the Chinese regime, by developing a network to spread Chinese intellectual references advocating for the full exercise of the right to information in the PRC.
We provide the Chinese public with resources to get independent information despite censorship, by facilitating access to tools circumventing the “Great Firewall” and by informing on Chinese-language independent media platforms.
We obtain concrete support from the international community by promoting worldwide the Chinese intellectual references advocating for the full exercise of the right to information in the PRC.
Contact us
Contact email: circle19-right-information(at)proton.me
Journalistic investigations that changed China
1979: The article that exposed the corruption of local officials in China
Liu Binyan’s “People or Monsters,” published by People’s Literature in 1979, is a fictionalized story based on factual reporting about a corrupt government official in Heilongjiang Province, and the whistleblowers who exposed her. Liu paints China’s governance as a web of interlocking connections (a social mechanism known as “guanxi”) rather than a system based on…
2002: How a “China Business News” investigation sparkled debate on police brutality
In August 2002, plainclothes police in Yan’an (Shaanxi Province) entered the home of a married couple after receiving a tipoff that they had been watching porn. The husband, surnamed Zhang, was taken in custody and beaten up, requesting hospitalisation. Two months later, the police arrested him again on account of the previous incident under the…
2003: The article that shut down China’s 800 infamous migrant detention facilities
“The Death of Detainee Sun Zhigang,” published in 2003, marked a pivotal moment in Chinese journalism, whose impact in China is comparable with the Watergate scandal in the USA. This article tells the story of a young economic migrant working for a clothing company in Guangzhou, who was arrested for failing to show police a…
2003: The early days of SARS outbreak in China
This story, published in February 2003, outlines the early days of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Guangdong Province and documents how the government’s silence led to chaos, confusion and widespread rumors. Journalists Chen Hai and Jiang Hua, reporting for Southern Weekly, describe the impact on society of the new and unknown illness…
2005: The news article that led to the strengthening of safer medical practices in Chinese hospitals
In 2005, an AIDS epidemic in Xingtai, Hebei province had over 200 infected patients, including children. Investigative journalist Wang Keqin used official government documents, several years of media reports, and interviews with doctors as well as 34 AIDS patients to prove that the epidemic was caused in large part by Xingtai hospitals which were using…
2007: The article that startled China’s environmental consciousness
In November 2006, the local government announced it would build a new chemical plant producing toxic compounds just 7 km away from Xiamen City, with a population of over 2.2 million. This story, published in Hong Kong’s Phoenix Weekly in May 2007, is the first news article about the issue and uses public records as…
2008: The article that showed how corruption contributed to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake’s terrible death count
On 12 May 2008, a devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook China’s Sichuan province, resulting in the collapse of an estimated 21,600 buildings, including around 7,000 schools and the deaths of at least 70,000 people including 19,000 school students. In the aftermath of the disaster, human rights media 64 Tianwang denounced the shoddy design, due to local…
2008: The news article that led to the strengthening of Chinese food safety standards
This news article accused the Sanlu Group, one of the country’s largest dairy producers, of selling a milk powder contaminated with melamine, a poisonous substance that sickened an estimated 300,000 children in China and killed at least six infants in 2008. After the article was published, the government identified a total of 22 companies whose…