Prominent journalist Gao Yu has been “criminally detained”, China has announced, as the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests nears.
State news agency Xinhua said the 70-year-old had leaked a confidential document to a foreign website.
Ms Gao had been reported missing since 24 April by family and friends. Authorities confirmed they had detained her on this date.
She joins several other government critics rounded up in recent days.
Ms Gao had illegally obtained the document and sent it to the website last year, said Xinhua. The document was later widely reposted abroad, it said.
State television network CCTV aired a video of a woman said to be Ms Gao confessing on Thursday morning.
The woman, whose face was blurred, said: “I admit that what I’ve done touched on legal issues and threatened national interests.”
“My actions were very wrong. I have sincerely learnt my lesson, and I admit my guilt.”
Asked by the BBC if he could identify the document in question, Ms Gao’s lawyer Teng Biao said he agreed with online speculation that it could be “Document Number 9”, which Ms Gao had written about last year.
