One hundred days before the Olympics, death threats against foreign correspondents and official statements demonizing Western media risk creating a hostile environment for foreign journalists based in China and for tens of thousands of additional media planning to cover the Games, says the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC).
At least ten foreign correspondents in China have received anonymous death threats during a campaign, on the Web and in state-run media, against alleged bias in Western media coverage of the Tibetan unrest and its aftermath.
The introduction of Olympics regulations allowing free travel and interviewing in China by foreign media between January 2007 and October 2008 represented an improvement in reporting conditions. However since March 14, the FCCC has learned of more than 50 incidents of interference in the work of international media trying to report in Tibetan communities. Foreign correspondents have been detained, prevented from conducting interviews, searched, and subjected to the confiscation or destruction of reporting materials. Authorities have intimidated Chinese sources and staff, and in some cases ordered them to inform on foreign correspondents’ activities.
“If allowed to continue, the reporting interference and hate campaigns targeting international media may poison the pre-Games atmosphere for foreign journalists,” says FCCC President Melinda Liu. “We urge government authorities to investigate the death threats, which violate Chinese law, and otherwise help create an environment in keeping with their Olympic promises.”
It’s not too late to improve conditions. The FCCC also urges:
The FCCC fully supports Beijing’s Olympics action plan, made public in 2002, to “be open in every aspect to the rest of the country and the whole world” and to “follow international standards and criteria” in the period before and during the 2008 Games. We urge Beijing to make good on these commitments at the earliest possible date.
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The foreign affairs office in Ningxia blocked a documentary producer from researching locations for a project on climate change, even though the producer had earlier obtained permission to film in the area.
The documentary crew was met in Yinchuan, Ningxia on arrival at the airport and ordered to return to Beijing, by authorities “who said we were no longer allowed to film in Ningxia,” according to a member of the team.
Police stopped a reporter and photographer from Kyodo News at a checkpoint as they tried to enter the Tibetan-inhabited city of Ganzi in western Sichuan Province.
Three policemen insisted they escort the reporter and photographer for their own safety, and followed them everywhere they went — at times in a separate car, at times on foot — while they were in Ganzi.
The reporting team also was denied access to a Tibetan temple and was told the reason was because no journalist could enter without a press pass for the Beijing Olympics — even though such passes have yet to be issued.
