China frees film maker after 5 months in isolation

BEIJING, July 12 (Reuters) A Chinese film maker and permanent US resident has been freed after being held in isolation and without charge in China for five months, a Paris-based press watchdog said today.

Hao Wu, who returned to China in 2004 after living in the United States for 12 years, was detained on February 22 after interviewing a human rights lawyer while making a documentary about an underground Protestant church.

He was held in isolation for 140 days and not allowed access to a lawyer, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. It did not give the day of his release.

Chinese authorities had never given a reason for his detention and barred his relatives from visiting or phoning him, the group added.

It was unclear whether it had anything to do with his interview with the lawyer, his documentary or comments on his own blog.

His sister, Wu Na, wrote on her blog that he ''is out ... but needs peace and quiet for some time''.

Reporters Without Borders said Chinese security services had violate Wu's basic rights by claiming that his case was a matter of national security.

''China is by far the world's biggest prison for bloggers and cyber-dissidents,'' the group said, adding that 50 people were currently in prison in China for writing about subversive subjects online.

China routinely blocks access to Internet sites on sensitive subjects and rules introduced last year target Internet news content to tighten the noose on freewheeling bloggers and rein in a growing source of information.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment. Wu's sister, who lives in Shanghai, could not be reached.

REUTERS SY KP0930