HONG KONG -- The headlines tell it all. On the front page of the International Herald Tribune: "Activist in China sentenced to 4 years -- decision seen as part of a sweeping move to punish dissent."
For the official Xinhua news agency report on the same story: "Blind mob organizer sentenced to imprisonment."
Chen Guangcheng is a 34-year-old self-taught lawyer who has been blind since childhood. He became a celebrity because he championed the cause first of other disabled people who had been the victims of discrimination. He then went further and tried to bring a class-action lawsuit against the local government in Shandong province for carrying out a campaign of forced abortion and sterilization to meet birth-control quotas.