A researcher employed by the New York Times went on trial today in Beijing on charges of divulging state secrets as part of a concerted campaign to restrict foreign media.

Zhao Yan was arrested 22 months ago when his newspaper correctly predicted the imminent retirement of Jiang Zemin from the post of commander-in-chief.

Within days, agents from the state security ministry arrested the 44-year-old Chinese journalist in a restaurant in Shanghai after tracing his mobile phone signal. He now faces more than ten years in prison.

Mr Zhao’s colleagues and editors have said that he was not the source for the retirement story and in the past year President Bush has personally lobbied the Chinese Government on his behalf.

Beijing, however, seems determined to make an example of Mr Zhao in an effort to deter other Chinese from co-operating with foreign media on sensitive reports. Last year security agents arrested Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong resident working for the Straits Times of Singapore, on spying charges.

Mr Zhao, a well-known Chinese-language journalist before he joined the New York Times, was tried behind closed doors despite calls from his family to admit the public.

"I made a request to hear the trial but they said the trial was closed and that I would not be allowed in," Zhao Kun, a sister, said outside the No 2 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing. "His lawyers have already entered. From what they have told me they will plead not guilty."

China is believed to be the world’s leading jailer of journalists, with at least 42 behind bars, many on charges of violating vague security or subversion laws.

"Under China’s constitution, people are supposed to enjoy freedom of speech but this has never been clearly defined," said Li Datong, a former editor of Freezing Point, a weekly supplement in the ruling Communist Party’s China Youth Daily newspaper.

Mr Li was removed from his post in February after printing an article questioning the official approach to history. "The vagueness gives some officials a lot of room to manoeuvre and this is a situation that should not be allowed to continue," said Mr Li.

International human rights organisations have condemned the increasingly rough treatment of journalists in China. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists declared: "While Zhao’s long imprisonment without trial has forced us to brace [ourselves] for further injustice, we can only hope that the court will do the right thing. Find Zhao innocent and release him immediately."

Meanwhile, a court in Hunan province in southern China sentenced journalist Yang Xiaoqing to one year in jail yesterday for extortion after he wrote articles about official corruption.

Gong Jie, his wife, said that hundreds of onlookers had swarmed the Longhui No 1 People’s Court and blocked police cars to protest against the sentence. Some carried signs reading: "Corrupt officials should not bully reporters and the people!"

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