H. E. Mr. Li Peng
Premier
Office of the Premier
Beijing
People’s Republic of China

Vienna, 20 December 1995

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 85 countries, strongly condemns the de facto expulsion of a German journalist working in China.

We are informed that Chinese authorities have told Henrik Bork, the Beijing bureau chief of the Frankfurter Rundschau, that his work permit and visa will not be renewed after they expire on 27 December 1995 and accused him of “negatively influencing German public opinion about China”.

We understand that Mr. Bork, who has been based in China since January 1992, was told by officials of the Chinese Foreign Ministry that his reporting was consistently “biased and negative” and that his articles had attacked “personalities of the People’s Republic of China.” This last allegation appears to be a reference to an article, published in 1994, in which Mr. Bork refers to Your Excellency as a dictator and accused you of ducking questions about the army’s crushing of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989.

IPI regards the decision not to renew Mr. Bork’s papers as an attempt by Chinese authorities to intimidate the Beijing foreign press corps and as a flagrant violation of the journalist’s right to “seek, receive and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as guaranteed in Article 19 of United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We strongly urge Your Excellency to ensure that Mr. Bork’s credentials are renewed and that foreign journalists working in China are allowed to pursue their work without political harassment.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director