20 November 2014 Last updated at 13:20 ET
Chinese journalist Gao Yu, who served a seven-year prison sentence for disclosing 'state secrets' looks on in Hong Kong, 05 February 2007
Gao Yu says she was forced to admit to the crime of leaking state secrets
Chinese journalist Gao Yu goes on trial on Friday accused of leaking an internal Communist Party document. She faces a life sentence. What has Ms Gao done to anger Chinese leaders?
At the time, it was an astonishing confession. Gao Yu, a highly respected freelance journalist, was shown on national television in China, admitting she made a "big mistake".
Her face digitally blurred, she admitted to stealing a confidential Communist Party document and sending it to a foreign news website.
Even then, many suspected that the 70-year-old Ms Gao had been forced into confessing her guilt.
And now we know more: in a recent pre-trial hearing, Ms Gao told the court that she falsely admitted to a crime because police were threatening to arrest her son.
He had been detained at the same time as his mother. She did not know the "confession" would be televised.
'Document No. 9'
Ms Gao is used to fighting with the Chinese authorities. She served more than five years in jail in the 1990s on similar charges of stealing state secrets.
She had been convicted of sending Party documents, including a speech by then-President Jiang Zemin, to a Hong Kong newspaper.
This time, the Chinese government believes Ms Gao sent an internal Communist Party document, known as "Document No 9", to foreign news sites, including the Chinese-language site of the German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.
Ms Gao's lawyers are mounting a two-pronged defence.
They will demand the court dismiss the content of her confession, because it was made under duress.
They also want the court to reconsider whether the case is related to state secrets, since the document she allegedly leaked was already widely circulated.
Human rights and media watch groups have decried the persecution of Ms Gao.
