During a reporting trip to Xinjiang, the Muslim Uighur region in China’s far west, reporter Brice Pedroletti of France’s Le Monde newspaper was followed and searched, and his sources were intimidated. Pedroletti visited the apartment of the daughter of exiled human rights advocate Rebiya Kadeer. The family told him it was not “convenient” to talk. Two days later three plainclothes officers took Pedroletti to a backroom at his hotel and interrgated him for 45 minutes before he rushed off to catch a flight. He was frequently followed during his seven-day trip to Kashgar and surrounding counties, where he was investigating claims of abuses of teenage Uighur girls sent to work in factories in eastern China. One source told Pedroletti he was questioned for two hours the day after speaking to the foreign reporter in his shop. Pedroletti said a family he visited was questioned after he left by men in a car that was shadowing him. Before crossing the Kirghizstan border police searched Pedroletti’s bag and examined his photographs. “The constant surveillance prevented me from hiring a good interpreter and freely reporting,” said Pedroletti. “Sources were scared to talk to me, and I did not want to put them in danger.”
A European documentary team– which the government had granted permission to report in Tibet– was repeatedly harassed by local authorities during its visit there. Authorities interrupted two interviews, once because the Tibetan language was used, and once because authorities appeared concerned the interviewee would say something critical about life in Tibet. In some locations, authorities withdrew previously granted permission to film due to “safety” concerns. Authorities also asked the team to erase footage, which the team refused to do. When the team reached the border with Nepal, an accompanying foreign affairs official from Bejing said if the team did not sign a pledge about how it would use its footage, it would have to return to Lhasa to submit its film to censorship authorities. The team felt it had no choice but to sign a document saying its reporting material would “never be used to deliberately uglify Tibet and China… (or)… be used to depict any prostitution, environmental, sanitation, and public dissatisfaction problems.”
Seven journalists from three media outlets, including Hong Kong’s Cable TV, were held for one hour after interviewing Yuan Weijing, the wife of blind activist Chen Guangcheng. The reporters were stopped by about seven police officers as they left the home of activist Hu Jia, where the interview had taken place. The police recorded their passport and press card details before allowing them to depart. The delay prevented the reporters from accompanying Yuan to the airport. The police said they were responding to a complaint by Hu Jia’s neighbor that a number of foreigners were conducting interviews in the compound.
Reporters from the South China Morning Post and the New York Times were turned away from Yixing court where they planned to cover the trial of environmental activist Wu Lihong. Outside the courthouse, three people believed to be plainclothes police officers photographed and verbally harassed the reporters. One of the three searched one of the journalists’ bags when the journalist stepped away, in apparent violation of Constitutional protection of privacy.
