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Ai Weiwei released; colleagues still detained

Posted on June 23, 2011 | No Comments

BEIJING — China said Thursday that dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who was released from jail a day earlier, remained under investigation and would be prohibited from leaving Beijing for at least the next year as a condition of his bail. “Ai Weiwei is still under investigation,” Hong Lei, the foreign ministry spokesman, told a regularly scheduled news briefing.  “He is not allowed to leave his area of residence.”  Lei said the “area of residence” referred to Beijing, and that Ai was not being placed under house arrest.

Text reprinted from the Washington Post & the image taken from the Venice Biennial.

The situation of Ai Weiwei relates somehow to the recent DISPATCH by fD Founder, Todd Lester:

Liberal, left-leaning journalists can be employed by a variety of institutions, ranging from watchdog investigative initiatives to conservative, multinational news corporations.  For the latter, they may find that it is still possible to be true to their ideas, profession and the progressive cheap oakley sunglasses lens through which they see the world even with an ill-suited affiliation.  Conversely, artists (when they do the work of activists) rarely have the luxury of institutional or corporate affiliation, a feature that typically provides or insures protection and safety when working under adverse conditions.

 

 

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