European and US diplomats in Beijing, as well as journalists’ groups around the world, have strongly criticised China’s latest clampdown on journalists.
“It is unacceptable that journalists are harassed and manhandled while seeking to cover a peaceful protest -which ultimately did not even take place,” said IPI Director Alison Bethel McKenzie. “Journalists working in China are already required to respect numerous rules deemed unacceptable in most parts of the world. Physical harassment represents yet another step in China’s censorship system which violates not only the right to press freedom, but also Chinese law.”
Numerous foreign journalists were harassed and manhandled on Sunday, 27 February in downtown Beijing, where a pro-democracy protest was expected to take place. Throughout the previous week, anonymous calls had appeared on different websites urging people to gather in Beijing’s Wangfujing area, as well as in other major cities around China.
Although the rallies failed to actually materialise, journalists attempting to cover them were manhandled by policemen, some in plainclothes, who gathered in the designated rally areas.
According to news reports, several reporters were detained by police and roughed up on Sunday in Beijing.
Radio Free Asia reported that an American news videographer was kicked and beaten repeatedly in the face with brooms and taken into police custody.
CNN said that two of its journalists, Eunice Yoon and Jo Ling Kent, were physically harassed by Chinese security.
Deutsche Welle reported on the arrest of two journalists with the German public service broadcaster. The journalists were later released, the broadcaster said.
BBC journalist Damian Grammaticas said he too was manhandled: “My hair was grabbed and pulled by one of the state security goons … They tried to pick me up and throw me bodily into the van,” The Epoch Times reported.
Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that two Taiwanese journalists with a local TV station were briefly taken away by police from Wangfujing Street. One of them was injured when police took him away by force.
Rules for foreign journalists reporting in China have been tightened following the storm of demonstrations against authoritarian rule in the Middle East and North Africa.
“Some journalists were told Wangfujing and several other areas in Beijing, including Xidan, Tiananmen, and Beijing Station, are considered ‘special zones’ and journalists who wish to report in these areas must apply in advance,” the Foreign Correspondents Club of China said.
The Exit-Entry Administration Office of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and Beijing Foreign Affairs Office had called foreign news bureaus in Beijing, instructing them to summon their reporters for an urgent meeting on 25 February, Radio Free Asia reported.
On the same day, an article appeared in the Beijing Daily, stating that “Beijing authorities reiterate that reporters must follow laws and rules while reporting in Beijing, namely, submitting applications, obtaining permission from the interviewed entities or individuals, showing valid ID, and following related administrative rules,” the Epoch Times reported.
Condemning the attacks against journalists, US Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, said: “I call on the Chinese government to hold the perpetrators accountable for harassing and assaulting innocent individuals and ask that they respect the rights of foreign journalists to report in China.”
