SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 8:26 AM September 12, 2014 11:09 am
Journalists waiting outside the Great Hall of the People during the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing in March.Credit Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
Conditions for foreign journalists working in China have gone from bad to worse over the past year, with the Chinese authorities increasingly seeking to influence coverage by intimidating reporters and their interview subjects, barring journalists from large portions of the country or by withholding visas and blocking the websites of overseas news outlets, according to a report issued on Friday by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.
The report, the result of a survey among the organization’s 243 members, paints a portrait of mounting pressure on foreign journalists as the ruling Communist Party seeks to aggressively limit negative coverage abroad and to punish news organizations and reporters who defy warnings to steer clear from so-called sensitive topics, such as the wealth accumulated by relatives of China’s top leaders.
The report noted that conditions had worsened significantly since 2008, when the Chinese government relaxed restrictions on foreign correspondents during the approach to the Beijing Olympics.
“China’s poor record on allowing open and unfettered reporting is in conflict with its desire to be seen as a modern society deserving of global respect,” the report said. “And it is in great contrast with the wide access Chinese journalists have enjoyed when reporting in many foreign countries.”
The report details increasing harassment of foreign journalists by public security personnel, with two-thirds of respondents reporting interferenceor physical violence in the field. Last spring, for example, several photographers and television crew members were injured or had equipment damaged as they tried to cover the Beijing trial of the rights activist Xu Zhiyong.
In some instances, the police have sought to intimidate reporters by visiting their homes and bureaus. In the weeks before the 25th anniversary of the June 4 military crackdown on student protests in Tiananmen Square, several reporters were summoned to the offices of the Beijing Public Security Bureau and warned against covering the occasion.
The authorities have also taken aim at Chinese citizens working for foreign news bureaus. Half of all respondents who employ Chinese news assistants said they had been threatened or harassed by the authorities. In some instances, national security agents have pressed interns working at American news outlets to act as spies, and when they refused, pressured them into quitting.
The report, framed as a position paper, included more than two dozen recommendations to the Chinese government for improving working conditions among overseas journalists. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in the past it has warned the association against making public cases of harassment and intimidation among its membership.
