Hundreds of protesters gathered on Friday at the Chinese Consulate in New York, chanting "shame on China," and "free speech now", to protest Internet censorship by the Chinese government.
They highlighted the case of Shi Tao, who was sentenced to ten years in prison for sending an email that the Chinese government objected to.
37 year old Shi Tao worked for Contemporary Business News in Hunan province, before he was arrested and sentenced in April to ten years in prison.
According to a translation of his conviction, reproduced by Reporters Without Borders, he was found guilty of sending foreign-based websites the text of an internal Communist Party message.
Reporters Without Borders said the message warned journalists of the dangers of social unrest resulting from the return of dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, in June 2004.
Friday's protest was organised by Amnesty International as part of their 11th annual "Get on the Bus" event, to protest worldwide human rights abuses.
Matthew Kennis, of Amnesty International USA, called the day one of education and action, and said that as well as internet censorship in China, they also hoped to draw attention to continuing human rights abuses in Darfur, Ethiopia, and Guatemala.
Amnesty staged similar demonstrations at the Ethiopian and Sudanese Missions and the Guatemalan Consulate in New York City on Friday.
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