The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China deplores the detention and harassment of journalists attempting to cover the unrest in Xinjiang. We urge the Chinese authorities to permit the free flow of information that is essential to objective and fair reporting.
Contrary to the spirit of state reporting regulations, security forces in Xinjiang have detained TV crews and other reporters, confiscated equipment and in at least one case damaged a video camera.
Over the past two days, the FCCC has also received reports of authorities forcibly preventing journalists from doing interviews, and detaining them for several hours. Restrictions on the Internet and international phone calls have also made it difficult for journalists to properly carry out their work.
“Detaining and harassing journalists for news reporting is wrong. We call on the authorities to allow journalists to do their jobs without restraints,” said club president Scott McDonald.
LOCATION: Urumqi
TYPE OF INCIDENT: Barred from public space, Manhandled
TOPIC: Xinjiang Unrest
NATIONALITY/ORGANIZATION: Asian Print
DESCRIPTION: Daily organised trips for the media. They were obviously orchestrated, but at least they are trying. Media officers who were largely cordial and tried very hard to be helpful. There were at least two instances when I was stopped from reporting and escorted from the scene of the riots. But in both instances, it would not be far fetched that they were done indeed to ensure journalists’ safety. It was regrettable that once, the police shoved me into a white van before sending me back to the media hotel. But otherwise, it was civilized behavior. While there was Internet connection at the designated hotel, it was hardly enough to meet the needs of the journalists. The erratic telecommunications also made reporting work much more tedious.
“I saw numerous instances of the police requesting the TV media to stop filming and despite the journalists/cameramen ignoring it repeatedly, the officers remained polite.”
