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**Du Bin (杜斌)** is a Beijing-based independent journalist, writer, photojournalist, and documentary filmmaker whose work has documented politically sensitive subjects and human-rights abuses in China. He previously worked as a photographer for *The New York Times*’ Beijing bureau from 2004 to 2011, leaving after sustained state surveillance and pressure, and earlier for state-owned outlets including *Beijing Youth Daily* and *Workers’ Daily*. His books — all published outside mainland China — include works on the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and *Changchun Hunger Siege* (2017), a historical account of the mass starvation of civilians in Changchun during the Chinese civil war.
In 2013, after releasing the documentary *Above the Ghosts’ Head: The Women of Masanjia Labour Camp*, which exposed torture and ill-treatment at the Masanjia women’s re-education-through-labour camp, Du was detained for 37 days. Amnesty International reported that he was released on bail on July 8, 2013, barred from leaving Beijing without permission for one year while authorities continued to investigate him for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” He was detained again briefly in December 2020 on the same allegation, related to his books critical of the government, and was not prosecuted in either case.
On October 15, 2025, police took Du from his Beijing residence — a day before he had a scheduled trip to Japan, according to his sister — and he was transferred to Beijing’s Shunyi Detention Center. Human Rights Watch reported that he was formally charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (Article 293 of China’s Criminal Law), the first time he had been formally charged after three detentions; his family said they had not received formal notice of the arrest or charge. The International Federation of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists both condemned the detention and called for his immediate release.
Rights-monitoring organizations reported in September 2026 that Du was sentenced on August 28 to 18 months in prison. According to the Rights Defense Network, which reported the sentence on September 1, political reposts or commentary were used as evidence; Minsheng Watch separately reported an 18-month first-instance sentence. No public court judgment or official sentencing notice has been located, and the exact legal basis of the sentence is not confirmed. The Free China Movement issued a statement calling for the judgment to be made public and for Du’s right to appeal and release to be protected.
**Sources and limitations.** The detention and charge facts are reported by Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Journalists, and the Committee to Protect Journalists; the 2013 case is documented by Amnesty International; the 2026 sentence is reported by rights-monitoring organizations and has not been independently verified against a court judgment. The charge details and evidence remain unconfirmed by any public judicial record. His current status should be read as the reported sentence (dated August 28, 2026), not as an independently verified fact.
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Media Profile & Archive: Du Bin (杜斌) — Media Profile & Archive