Description: Local authorities took longer than 15 minutes to record the reporting team’s information, interfered with an interview with hospital director and appeared to intimidate other interviewees. Unidentified authorities unsuccessfully pressured the translator to speak in a private room and disclose the purpose of the visit. The authorities offered the journalists an unwanted lunch invitation and guide services. “They kept stalling our interview and our departure, and when we went to the Yingbindajie to interview local shopowners they kept loitering. This seemed to intimidate the shop people a bit. We asked them repeatedly to stop following us and not to take pictures. They seemed to comply initially, but after a few minutes would just do it again. This was repeated at the local clinic at Beidacun, a village near Baoding. When I asked two of them to identify themselves they didn’t give their names or namecards, but said they were from the local xuanchuanbu (propaganda department) and were here to help us.” The authorities were helpful when, shortly before the journalists left, one lost a cell phone and the authorities helped them find it.

QUOTE: “We explained that if the interviewees agree with the interview, we can interview them without further permission. They seemed to be aware of this, and just emphasized that they were there to provide service.”

DESCRIPTION: The parents of a child affected by contaminated Sanlu milk powder canceled a scheduled interview at the last minute.
QUOTE: “They canceled the interview the night before. They gave no explanation, and turned off their phone. This was the same weekend when about 20 people were rounded up in Beijing as they were about to hold a press conference on the milk powder incident. We believe authorities had called the parents and dissuaded them from speaking with us. After that weekend, even the attorneys who had previously spoken to us were no longer willing to talk.”

“It certainly had an impact on our story,” Williams said. “We needed the shot of corn farming, but we couldn’t do it.”

Beijing-based Sami Sillanpaa of Helsingin Sanomat and Philip Lote, a visiting colleague from Norwegian television NRK, were interviewing farmers when three carloads of people arrived and refused to identify themselves. Sillanpaa, who said the men were in constant telephone contact with someone to relay information about the journalists, said the officials just happened to show up and wanted to watch what was going on. “They ruined our interview,” said Sillanpaa. “After they arrived (the farmers) were not so willing to talk anymore.”

The pair then left the area and were followed by the unidentified officials who had disrupted their interview. The officials left off when the journalists crossed the provincial border en route to Beijing.

The factory had refused requests for two weeks for a visit, but she wanted to talk to locals outside. Soon after she arrived, the head of the local propaganda bureau turned up in a big black car and ordered everyone to leave and not to talk to the reporter.
One of the officials began filming villagers to intimidate them.

When asked to explain, the official told Makkonen she didn’t want them to crowd her and asked her to come for tea and discuss the purpose of the reporting trip. When she reminded the official that this was not necessary under Olympic reporting regulations, the official eventually relented. But from then on, Makkonen was followed.

“We interviewed someone and then three people barged into his house,” said Makkonen. “It was the people from the factory who we had been calling for two weeks and refused to let us interview them.”

The journalists – one each from the U.S., the Netherlands, and Spain – first noticed local officials at a diversion canal project near Changgucheng village, where a woman asked what they were doing and if they had come to see the mayor. After leaving the canal, the reporters saw two unmarked cars which followed them for 90 minutes to a reservoir, where they were denied access. The journalists then attempted to access a second reservoir the Wangkui but were stopped by 15 people who blocked the road with a table, saying the road has been closed for four years.

After two hours of negotiation and showing their press cards to the only uniformed officer present (who was the only person who showed an I.D. to the media) the journalists were allowed to leave. Despite being promised they wouldn’t be followed, the media were followed to the entrance of the expressway to Beijing.

The journalists had phoned the Foreign Ministry and International Press Center in Beijing for assistance when local officers said they wouldn’t allow the party to leave the blockaded area. The IPC said it could not help. Foreign Ministry officials did not call back as promised, though one responded several days later.

“I have been interrogated by police before, but this was on a whole different scale,” said Luthi. “It is the first time I have been physically beaten.” She said six cars drove up containing ten to 12 men, who claimed to be local villagers. She believes they were plainclothes police. Two of the cars did not have number plates. She says the men were “quite brutal.” They twisted her arm, and grabbed a camera and bags. In the struggle, Luthi fell to the ground.

The issue was eventually resolved when the plainclothes men called the local foreign affairs bureau.

The violence followed the reported recent death of a local farmer from injuries suffered in June 2005, when hundreds of armed thugs killed six and injured 51 farmers while seeking to evict them from their land to make way for a power plant.

Local police accused the AFP journalists of illegal reporting and demanded the names of their contacts in the village. The journalists were released after they showed the local Foreign Affairs officials a copy of the new Olympic reporting rules.

The news crew was forced to halt filming of farmers in a corn field, then taken away to a restaurant where they were interrogated and forced to destroy their tapes.

After more than three hours, the journalists were allowed to leave, but officials followed them to the provincial boundary.