The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China strongly condemns the assault by unidentified people on three reporters working for Japan’s Kyodo News Agency.
According to Kyodo, the three journalists were attacked, hit and pushed to the ground on the evening of Sept. 18. Some of their equipment was also damaged.
The three were covering a rehearsal for the Oct. 1 National Day parade, an event carried out on Beijing’s biggest street in front of thousands of people.
In recent weeks, many Beijing-based journalists have been verbally warned by the authorities not to film the preparations or to open windows overlooking the parades. The legal basis for these warnings has not been made clear.
The FCCC calls on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify, in writing, any rules it has regarding coverage of these events.
“This attack is a step backward in China’s efforts to open up the reporting environment. We urge restraint on the part of authorities, who must follow China’s own rules allowing foreign journalists to report freely,” said FCCC President Scott McDonald.
LOCATION: Beijing
TYPE OF INCIDENT: Violence, broken equipment
TOPIC: Oct. 1 National Day
NATIONALITY/ORGANIZATION: Kyodo news agency/Japan
The Japanese Kyodo news agency has reported that unidentified authorities in Beijing stormed the hotel room of three visiting journalists, beat them and damaged two computers. The agency says authorities stormed into the journalists’ room on Friday evening, kicked and beat the journalists about their heads, and forced them to kneel on the ground.
The incident occurred on a rehearsal day for the Oct. 1 military parade through central Beijing. More than a dozen FCCC members have reported receiving phone calls in recent weeks warning them not to photograph and/or interview people in or around Tiananmen Square in the weeks leading up to the anniversary. Several foreign news organizations were ordered not to film or photograph rehearsals, but no clear, written regulations have been issued by the Foreign Ministry and journalists have been given varying instructions.
Following is the text of Kyodo’s English news report:
BEIJING, Sept. 18 Kyodo – Chinese authorities assaulted three Kyodo News journalists in Beijing on Friday night when they were covering a rehearsal of a military parade the country will stage in the city on Oct. 1, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The authorities kicked one reporter and two cameramen and hit their heads to make them knee down at a room of Beijing Hotel, which faces Chang’an Avenue that runs east to west past the Tiananmen Square area where the National Day celebrations will be centered.
The authorities, who stormed into the room around 8 p.m. without notice, destroyed two computers by throwing them out of the room to the corridor.
China’s Foreign Ministry ordered news organizations not to take photos when the country conducted a rehearsal Sept. 6, but the ministry has not issued such an order since then.
Just as the previous rehearsal, tanks, armored vehicles and missile-carrying vehicles traveled the central Beijing in the Friday event.
It will be the first time for China to hold a military parade since 1999, when it celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding.
