CHINA: Straits Times journalist Ching Cheong, who was jailed in April 2005 and accused of spying for Taiwan, has gone on trial behind closed doors in Beijing.
Trials involving espionage and state security are usually held in secret in China, but the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said Mr Ching's trial had begun.
Hong Kong's RTHK radio station later said the trial was held at the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court.
Mr Ching (56) was born in China and had worked for the Straits Times since 1996. He quit as the Beijing bureau chief of Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po newspaper in 1989 after the army crushed the student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
Mr Ching was arrested in the southern province of Guangdong, where he was reportedly collecting unpublished interviews with the late Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, who was purged for opposing the massacre.
He was charged with espionage last August and faces execution if convicted, although it is possible he may be given a long jail sentence or deported.
Chinese officials said he had confessed to "intelligence-gathering" and had accepted payment from "foreign intelligence agencies". China considers self-ruled Taiwan part of its territory.
Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, said the state secrets charge meant Mr Ching's chance of a fair hearing were slim.
China is the world's leading jailer of journalists, with at least 32 in custody and another 50 internet campaigners also in prison, rights group Reporters Without Borders says. Lawyers for Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer arrested in June over claims of forced abortions in the countryside, said he was due to go on trial on Friday.
Zhao Yan, a New York Times researcher accused of providing state secrets to foreigners, remains in detention awaiting a verdict in his case.
Last month, an alliance of media rights groups staged events worldwide to demand China handle his case in a "fair, just and open" manner.