2 local vloggers held in China amid pro-Tibet protests
Two Philadelphia-area men were arrested early Tuesday in Beijing, where they had traveled to document pro-Tibet protests. Brian Conley, 28, a videographer from South Philadelphia who co-founded Small World News, and his friend Jeffrey Rae, 28, a photographer from Wayne who now works as a union organizer in New York City, were among 13 Americans detained in three incidents since early Tuesday in connection with protests organized by Students for a Free Tibet.
Two Philadelphia-area men were arrested early Tuesday in Beijing, where they had traveled to document pro-Tibet protests.
Brian Conley, 28, a videographer from South Philadelphia who co-founded Small World News, and his friend Jeffrey Rae, 28, a photographer from Wayne who now works as a union organizer in New York City, were among 13 Americans detained in three incidents since early Tuesday in connection with protests organized by Students for a Free Tibet.
"In jail, all fine," was the text message Conley sent to his wife, Eowyn A. Rieke, 40, in Philadelphia hours after his arrest, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists in Hong Kong. She said yesterday that had received no further word from him.
Neighbors said that Conley and Rieke had recently moved from their second-floor apartment on 15th Street near Wolf.
During the Olympics, Conley and Rae's video and photographs of Beijing and Tibetan protests have been airing on pro-Tibetan Web sites and circulated to media organizations, an official of the Students for a Free Tibet told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Yesterday, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the Chinese of "using the Olympics to crack down on peaceful human-rights activists, censor foreign and domestic journalists and displace Chinese . . .
"From media reports, we are now learning the Chinese government-designated 'protest zones' are a ruse for China to suppress dissent and imprison individuals who speak out against China's policies," Pelosi added.
Early Tuesday, Conley and Rae were with Brooklyn artist James Powderly, 31, who created a protest project using blue LED lighting to spell "Free Tibet" on a building near Tiananmen Square.
Powderly's work was recently part of a two-month exhibit, "Design and the Elastic Mind," which ended May 12 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The protest "sign" lasted only 20 seconds before police arrested five American protesters, who also unfurled a Tibetan banner.
Taken into custody, according to the New York Times, were Jacob Blumenfeld, 26; Sam Corbin, 24; Amy Johnson, 33; Liza Smith, 31, and Lauren Valle, 21.
Conley, Rae, Powderly and three others were also detained - possibly for a 10-day administrative sentence for disturbing public order - but wire services were unable to confirm the identities of all six.
State Department spokesman Noel Clay said the American Embassy in Beijing confirmed that the Chinese had detained five Americans for unfurling a Tibetan banner on Tuesday, and that they were deported on Wednesday.
Clay said that the State Department was seeking to verify two other reports, saying that:
_ Six Americans - who were affiliated with the deported protesters but had not engaged in the protests - had been detained; and
_ Two Americans had been detained on Aug. 20 for displaying a Tibetan flag.
Also, the Associated Press reported that two AP photographers who were covering a pro-Tibet protest yesterday had been roughed up and questioned by plainclothes security officers, who confiscated their cameras' memory cards.
Conley and Rae, who call themselves "citizen journalists," also have produced videos for Conley's video blogs, Alive in Baghdad.org and Alive in Mexico.org., through Small World News. *
