The Foreign Correspondents Club of China extends condolences to those who have been affected by the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan, one of the worst natural disasters in China since 1949.
The FCCC also welcomes Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang’s pledge to “exert our utmost efforts to create conditions” for journalists to report in quake-hit areas.
“A number of foreign correspondents have expressed appreciation for the access they have had to the disaster area, and to timely information about the calamity,” said FCCC President Melinda Liu. “This is a positive development, considering the challenging circumstances.”
Marije Vlaskamp, of the Netherlands broadcaster RTL said “The fact that I can just walk into the government crisis room and do camera interviews with the health department is not only unprecedented in China, but compared to other disasters I have covered in my own country and other countries I feel I have very wide access here. Of course it is frustrating when we see Chinese reporters getting more access to, for instance, mass burials and we cannot go there.”
Some correspondents have reported cases of interference while they were trying to reach, or conduct interviews in, quake-affected areas. Two foreign journalists said they were roughed up. Two correspondents reported authorities seized or tried to seize their video, or deleted photographs. A number of correspondents said a few days after the earthquake they were stopped at roadblocks and prevented from entering Beichuan, one of the hardest-hit areas, while Chinese journalists were allowed through. They were eventually able to proceed.
Among them was Katri Makkonen of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE. She said she was pushed around and
detained for 90 minutes. Nevertheless, she was generally “very, very surprised by the good way we were treated. At one roadblock I told a soldier I was a journalist, and he said ‘welcome!’ and let us in.”
The FCCC is encouraged by the unprecedented openness and access many foreign correspondents have found in the early stages of covering the earthquake and its aftermath. We hope this will continue and expand. Making an early announcement that the temporary foreign reporting regulations will be made permanent, once they expire on October 17, 2008, would be a welcome and decisive step in that direction.
Jonathan Watts of Britain’s Guardian newspaper said military personnel working in Niufei Village, Pingwu County, told his reporting team they were not allowed to video the soldiers en route to a school buried in a landslide.
“I told them they should be proud of what they are doing, and they should let the people know,” Watts said. “But they confiscated a video tape, deleted some photographs, and told us to leave.”
In Mianyang the next day, Watts was obstructed by police from entering a refugee camp, although he said domestic journalists appeared to have unfettered access. Two days later, he was held up at a checkpoint near Zipingpu dam by a soldier who claimed he was under orders to prevent foreigners from entering “because spies had infiltrated the area.” On other occasions Watts said he received unprecedented cooperation from security personnel, including rides in trucks and on speedboats.
“It was a mixture. In a single day you could experience refreshing openness and a feeling of shared humanity. Then, straight after, the same old frustrating restrictions and suspicion of foreigners that was normal in the past,” he said. “Overall, my encounters with police and troops were more positive than at any time before. But it seemed to depend on the individual rather than be the result of any change of policy.”
Sami Sillanpaa, correspondent for the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat, said two days after the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan a half dozen foreign correspondents were barred at a roadblock from entering the town of Beichuan near the epicenter.
While the foreign journalists were held up, Chinese journalists got on a minibus and were allowed through. Sillanpaa said in the early days after the quake he was stopped at about five roadblocks outside Dujiangyan, Mianyang and elsewhere. Twice policemen told him foreign correspondents need to get permission from the local government’s foreign affairs office to pass through. On another occasion authorities interfered with his interviews in a hospital in Deyang town, saying he could spread viruses. Nearby, a Chinese journalist filmed unimpeded.
Four policemen pushed around and detained for 90 minutes a Finnish TV reporter who was on her way to Beichuan near the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake.
Katri Makkonen of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE said police harassed her after local Foreign Affairs officers told her they had an order not to allow foreign correspondents to enter the hard-hit city.
“My cameraman managed to get in. While I was being detained, he was helping people buried in the rubble, without many rescuers in sight,” Makkonen said. She was later allowed to enter the city. Despite the detention, Makkonen was generally “very very surprised by the good way we were treated. At one roadblock I told the military I was a journalist, and he said ‘welcome’ and let us in.”
SICHUAN PROVINCE: POLICE CONFISCATE PRESS CARDS, TRY TO FORCIBLY CONFISCATE TAPES OF QUAKE DISASTER
May 13, 2008–
Police confiscated press cards from a TV team in Juyuan and tried to forcibly seize video the team took of the Sichuan earthquake disaster area.
At 3:00 a.m., 12 hours after the earthquake struck, a police officer who refused to identify himself confiscated reporters’ press cards issued by the Chinese government.
“They surrounded us and started pulling us — at our clothes, our hands and arms, at my bag, at our camera — we felt physically threatened and did not feel safe,” said a reporter. The team alerted the Foreign Ministry, and the Foreign Ministry was able to locate the teams press cards and return them within a few days.
