LOCATION: Urumqi
TYPE OF INCIDENT: Violence, detained for three hours, broken equipment, confiscated tape
TOPIC: Protests
NATIONALITY/ORGANIZATION: Hong Kong/TVB, two others
DESCRIPTION: “We were covering a rally in Urumqi on Renmin Nanlu. Armed police sorrounded the marchers, and started shooting tear gas. Armed police tackled three Hong Kong reporters to the ground as we were running away to escape the tear gas, when we were tackled to the ground. The police grabbed then beat us for a few minutes, and pinned us to the ground for 15 to 20 minutes. I was beaten with a baton on my shoulder and punched and kicked on my knee and lower back.
My cameraman was also beaten all over his body with a baton. (Another) TV cameraman was also punched in the head and kicked. We were brought to a nearby police station where we sat there for three hours. We were not told what law we had violated or charged. They returned our camera, which was broken, but our tape was fine. They confiscated (another network’s) tape.”
On Sept. 4, while covering protests in Urumqi, Associated Press photographer Andy Wong and TV producers David Wivell and Isolda Morillo had their equipment confiscated by paramilitary police. All three are fine and police did not take their documents. The cameras were returned after five hours. The incident occurred as security forces tried to disperse crowds of hundreds of Han Chinese men demonstrating near Communist Party offices in the city, the capital of Xinjiang.
An AP photographer, reporter, and APTN camera crew were followed by local government officials in Fengxiang county, Shaanxi province, who attempted to block or disrupt interviews with parents of children hospitalized for lead poisoning on Aug. 19.
A cameraman was asked for his press card, which a policeman photographed, and the reporters were directed to a hospital administrative office where they were told a spokesman would be made available to answer their questions. When none appeared, they left and briefly gained access to a ward where children were being treated, before being asked to leave. The officials withdrew after reporters crossed the county line.
Throughout the day, the journalists were tailed, and the officials would follow on foot, leaning in over their shoulders while they interviewed people.
The same officials visited the APTN crew at their hotel the previous night, asking them to leave, and saying that matters were being taken care of and foreign reporters had no business reporting about it.
LOCATION: Kashgar
TYPE OF INCIDENT: Barred from public space, Detained
TOPIC: Xinjiang Unrest
NATIONALITY/ORGANIZATION: Associated Press
Associated Press Photographer Elizabeth Dalziel was detained after taking photographs of a convoy going through the city. She was brought to the airport and ordered to leave Kashgar. She managed to return to the city, where she was detained again. The authorities deleted two photographs she had taken and escorted her back to the airport.
LOCATION: Village near Kashgar
TYPE OF INCIDENT: Barred from public space, Detained
TOPIC: Xinjiang Unrest
NATIONALITY/ORGANIZATION: Katri Makkonen, Finnish Broadcasting Company
DESCRIPTION: I was waiting at the village mosque for friday prayers to end. Our driver came to get me and said that the police wanted to question us. The police got into our car and we were taken to the police station with our Uighur translator. They questioned us and took our passports to be copied. The police told us that we should only try to visit mosques with them escorting us and that we should’ve asked permission to be in the town. They didn’t notice that I was a journalist so we were let go. The police got back into our car with us and asked to see the photos we had taken but we declined. We were only held at the station for 30 minutes.
“I think letting foreign journalists access to Urumqi and letting us report freely was a big improvement.”
