Police turned back a correspondent for U.S. National Public Radio who was seeking to reach Xiahe, Gansu province.
The correspondent was first stopped at a checkpoint about 50 kilometers outside of Lanzhou. The reporter took a back
road, and was turned back again at a checkpoint 20 kilometers outside of Xiahe. Louisa Lim’s car was followed by a police car for about 100 kilometers. Then a black sedan tailed her for about 300 kilometers, until she had almost reached the airport.
Police barred a television crew from ABC News of the U.S. from filming in a Tibetan neighborhood in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
When the reporters informed police of the Olympic rule allowing foreign reporters to travel and interview anyone who consents, Stephanie Sy says police “simply shrugged and hailed us a taxi.”
Police stopped correspondents from Britain’s ITV News at a toll both an hour outside of the monastery town of Xiahe, Gansu province, took details from their passports, and told them to leave.
A plainclothes policeman filmed the reporters. Authorities also recorded the driver’s license and license plate of the Lanzhou taxi driver, who “was terrified,” said ITV correspondent John Ray. “The only explanation we were given was there was ‘trouble ahead’. When we pressed them, we were told the road was damaged.”
On their way back to Lanzhou the journalists were pulled over at another toll booth and once again asked for their passports. “No explanation was offered; nor could they reconcile the road block with the Olympic regulations concerning foreign journalists,” said Ray. “We tried to film them, but were shooed away.”
After returning to Beijing, the ITV journalists were manhandled off a university campus where Tibetan students were holding a candlelit vigil, and people they believe to be plainclothes police photographed them.
Police stopped Belgian Public Broadcaster’s (VRT) correspondent, cameraman, assistant and Chinese driver at a roadblock on the way from Lanzhou to Xiahe in Gansu province.
Police told the reporting team to show their IDs and press cards and questioned them. The journalists were told they couldn’t travel further because there was a police operation going on, and they were being stopped for their own security.
When the correspondent showed the police and local foreign affairs officer the new foreign media reporting rules, he was told that the regulations weren’t valid due to the police operation. The police threatened the driver with arrest if he continued with
the crew. Correspondent Tom van de Weghe asked the police what would happen if he were to continue by foot.
“We will arrest you and put you on an airplane,” replied the police. The crew left the road block after about two hours, drove five hours and spent the night in Xining, Qinghai Province.
During the night the police called the Chinese driver many times to ask to which locations he had driven the team. The crew experienced problems sending the reports to Belgium because of restricted internet access.
