The FCCC regards the Olympic reporting rules introduced in January 2007 as an important step toward improving reporting conditions. Many foreign correspondents have said the reporting environment has improved, and the Foreign Ministry has often been helpful in supporting implementation of the new rules.
But concerns about implementation and interpretation remain, and the FCCC continues to monitor them. Between August and October we have learned of more than 16 incidents* of reporting interference that violate the word or spirit of the new rules. We are particularly concerned about the continued use of violence against reporters and their sources. Below are some of the outstanding issues highlighted by recent incidents, and our recommendations for improving implementation of the Olympic reporting rules to bring China closer to standards for reporting conditions offered by other Olympic hosts.
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Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer, Swiss photographers were detained for three hours in Wuchang, the southern area of Wuhan. Uniformed police detained the phogographers shortly after residents started describing how they had been beaten up and threatened in a dispute over property. It was the third time the couple have been detained during their travels around China. They said it was the most unpleasant experience.
“They were much rougher in the way they treated us,” said Braschler. ”After two hours, we said we are just going to leave. Then the chief of police came. He was very unfriendly and threatened to detain us for 12 hours if we didn’t go back to the police station. He seriously threatened us. The (police) said we couldn’t go until they checked us.” Eventually someone from the police foreign affairs department arrived, and invited the photographers to lunch to clarify the situation. “We said no.Then they got tough again. They said they wanted to check all our film, carmeras and notebook. I said two options – either we are free so we can go. Or we are arrested so we call the Swiss Embassy. Eventually they let us go,” said Braschler.
Swiss TV correspondent Barbara Luthi and her cameraman and local assistant were roughed up and detained for seven hours in Shengyou Village, Dingzhou County, Hebei Province. One of their tapes was erased by the authorities. The Swiss TV team had been interviewing villagers at the site of a land dispute that in 2005 resulted in a pitched battle that claimed six lives. “I have been interrogated by police before, but this was on a whole different scale,” said Luthi. “It is the first time I have been physically beaten.” She said six cars drove up containing ten to12 men, who claimed to be local villagers. She believes they were plainclothes police. Two of the cars did not have number plates. She says the men were “quite brutal.” They twisted her arm, and grabbed a camera and bags. In the struggle, Luthi fell to the ground. The issue was eventually resolved when the plainclothes men called the local foreign affairs bureau.
An Al-Jazeera television team was detained in a village in Anhui province, about an hour outside of Hefei. Melissa Chan says the team had been interviewing a young farm girl for a “very benign story on the life of a little girl.” She says local officials stopped the team and “insisted we ‘lunch’ with them.” The reporters said they had to get a plane back to Beijing. The officials persisted, and brought the Al-Jazeera team in for “a cup of tea.” Chan reports: “Tea dragged on for an hour, and then we discovered they had dragged the farmer we had spoken to, to the police station. The situation escalated, with us insisting they let him go before we leave. We then told them we’d go to the police station ourselves, at which point officials locked the gates so we could not leave the premises.” The team was detained for about three hours, with no explanation. When the correspondents showed the officials a copy of the reporting regulations, the officials said they were aware of the new rules. Chan says the Al-Jazeera team ended up calling the Foreign Ministry in Beijing for help and, “to their credit”, officials there made the relevant calls to get the team released.
