Foreign Correspondents' Club of China » Liaoning

State Security Warns Dalian Locals Not To Talk To BBC

FCCC Webmaster — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:42:02 +0000

State security told potential interviewees in Dalian not to talk to Rupert Wingfield Hayes of the BBC when he attempted to ask them about their involvement in a Carrefour boycott.

Czech Reporter Threatened With Deportation Over Refugee Interviews

FCCC Webmaster — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:05:07 +0000

A cameraman for Czech TV says undercover police in Shenyang, Liaoning province, searched his room, seized four videotapes and went through his computer after he conducted interviews with North Korean refugees.

Officials at the Chinese Foreign Ministry accused the journalist of funding and planning the storming of “foreign offices” in Beijing, charges he denies. Police questioned the reporter for approximately two-and-a-half hours in a Holiday Inn hotel restaurant and in his room. The police searched the reporter’s computer and two mobile phones, despite his objections. They searched his room, opening all the drawers, going through his personal belongings and checking his bed.

The journalist unsuccessfully tried to reach someone at the Chinese Foreign Ministry. An official at the Czech Embassy asked to speak to the undercover agent, but the agent hung up. The agents did not allow the journalist to make any more phone calls or answer his phone.

The police opened the safe in his room, removed four videotapes and confiscated them, and searched through an external hard drive they found in the safe.

During the search the journalist defended himself, saying that as a foreign journalist he has the right to talk with consenting interviewees under the Olympic free reporting rules. He was told that he could only interview people related to Olympics. The agents did not present a search warrant, and did not give the journalist a receipt for the videos they seized.

The following day the reporter lodged a complaint with the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing and requested the return of the tapes. Later, the Foreign Ministry summoned the reporter and claimed to have evidence he was planning and financing the storming
of foreign offices in Beijing.

“I was told if I had broken a law I would be deported. I would only be allowed to remain in the country if a situation like Shenyang were never repeated.’”

The journalist has received reports (http://www.hrwf.net/) that the four refugees he was supposed to interview were detained by
Chinese authorities shortly before his hotel room was searched.

Sky News Reporters Detained Twice Near North Korean Border

FCCC Webmaster — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:35:26 +0000

Holly Williams and her crew from Britain’s Sky News were detained twice in two days in January near the North Korean border, where they were doing a story about signs of North Korean poverty which were evident in China.

On the first occasion secret police detained the crew then handed them over to local police, who said they themselves “still hadn’t grasped” the new regulations. After a couple hours the journalists were released, following a call to the foreign ministry.

The following day, a military officer grabbed their camera while they were filming and gave it back only after the crew agreed to go with him to a nearby military base. They were held there for several hours and eventually released after a second call to the foreign ministry that day.

Sky News employees also have been compelled to stop reporting in Tiananmen Square and reprimanded officially regarding a story on the state of China’s zoos.

Italian Journalist Detained In Liaoning

FCCC Webmaster — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 00:09:42 +0000

Italian sports journalist Francesco Liello of La Gazetta dello Sport was detained in Anshan, Liaoning Province. He was trying to report on a “collective doping” scandal reported earlier by domestic Chinese media. He was unable to find the new headmaster, whom he wanted to interview, and was detained while photographing an empty running track. Liello, a member of the FCCC board, was taken to a police station, was told he’d violated the law because he was trying to report without permission, and was compelled to delete about 20 photos from his digital camera. Local officials who’d apprehended him said he would not have been detained if he had “acted like a tourist” and had not identified himself as a journalist. After signing a “confession” he was told to return to Beijing immediately.