[FCCC]
International journalists working in China complain that the Beijing authorities are making life difficult for them, sometimes making it impossible for them to do their work.
Visas are being delayed or denied. Reporters are finding it increasingly difficult to conduct interviews because people who speak to them suffer from police intimidation.
The authorities have also demanded that journalists obtain special permission to film or report in a number of locations designated as politically sensitive.
These restrictions and “negative trends” are an apparent effort to influence editorial coverage, according to the year-end statement by theForeign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC).
It cites several examples of visa problems. For example, correspondents for the New York Times and Bloomberg have not been able to renew their annual residence visas, which have been subject to unusual and unexplained delays.
Since the NY Times carried articles about the finances of a senior Chinese leader last year, it has also been unable to secure resident journalist visas for either its bureau chief, Philip Pan, who has been waiting for over 18 months, or correspondent Chris Buckley, who has been in Hong Kong awaiting a visa for a year.
Paul Mooney, a veteran correspondent known for his reporting onhuman rights issues, was denied the visa that would have allowed him to take a job in Beijing for Reuters.
Melissa Chan, Al-Jazeera‘s English language service correspondent, was denied a visa in May 2012 and effectively expelled.
The FCCC statement says:
“The authorities have given no public explanation for their actions, leading to the impression that they have been taken in reprisal for reporting that displeased the government.
Chinese officials have said that foreign media in China must abide by Chinese laws and regulations, but they have never explained which laws and regulations Pan, Buckley, Mooney and Chan, or their employers, are said to have violated.”
These complaints were aired last Thursday by Joe Biden, the US vice-president, during a visit to Beijing to meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who told him China treated reporters according to the law.
But the FCCC points out that new rules mean that the police can take 15 business days (three weeks) to process visa applications. During that period, reporters cannot leave the country, making the work of those responsible for Asian regional coverage unnecessarily difficult.
Then there are the problems over interviews. “The key rule governing foreign journalists in China – that they need only obtain the consent of their interviewees for an interview to be legal – has been progressively weakened in practice,” says the FCCC.
The authorities have decided that certain places, such as Tiananmen Square or scenes of social unrest, are not covered by the rule. Elsewhere in China, local officials often demand that employers must approve interview requests involving their workers.
Large swathes of Chinese territory remain effectively out of bounds to foreign correspondents. Although a handful of resident foreign correspondents and some journalists visiting from abroad have been allowed into Tibet this year, strict restrictions have been imposed on press coverage there.
Even in areas that are not explicitly off limits, such as Tibetan-inhabited areas of Gansu, western Sichuan, and Qinghai, FCCC members have faced obstruction by local authorities that makes working there extremely difficult, especially since it dissuades local residents from talking to reporters. Journalists seeking to report on unrest in Xinjiang have routinely been turned back by checkpoint police telling them that they are forbidden to be there.
“We are aware of a number of cases in which Chinese citizens have been intimidated by police or local officials, or instructed not to grant interviews to foreign correspondents,” says the statement.
It also claims that the police and security services officials continue to apply pressure on Chinese citizens who act as assistants to foreign correspondents: “This takes the form of requests for information about correspondents’ activities, threats and general harassment.”
The co-ordinated nature of this pressure is evident from the fact that, on two occasion during the year, Chinese embassy staff in foreign capitals contacted the headquarters of foreign media to complain about the coverage by their China-based correspondents.
They have demanded that their reports be removed from their websites and suggesting that they produce more positive Chinese coverage.
The FCCC statement concludes: “The Chinese authorities have repeatedly said that they are keen to improve foreign reporters’ working conditions. We eagerly await the fruits of their efforts.”
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