Representative Christopher H. Smith, Chair
Senator Jeff Merkley, Cochair
Public Security Officials Detain, Search BBC TV Crew Attempting to Report on Village Protests
September 6, 2005
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCC) issued a circular on July 18 on behalf of the BBC describing the official obstruction and abuse of two BBC journalists and their driver by public security officers reports United Press International (UPI). The incident occurred while the BBC team was attempting to report on village protests in Hebei province.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCC) issued a circular on July 18 on behalf of the BBC describing the official obstruction and abuse of two BBC journalists and their driver by public security officers reports United Press International (UPI). The incident occurred while the BBC team was attempting to report on village protests in Hebei province. BBC reporter Bessie Du, along with her cameraman and driver, traveled to the village of Shengyou in Hebei on July 13 to interview a local resident, according to the UPI account of the FCC circular. Officers detained the trio at 10 a.m. on July 14 as they approached a highway tollgate on the Hebei-Beijing boundary. Police snatched the reporter and her cameraman, dragging them into separate vehicles. The reporter, cameraman, and driver were strip-searched in separate interrogation chambers. Authorities released the TV crew at about 4:30 p.m. that same afternoon.
Official harassment and obstruction of investigative journalism is so widespread in China that the editor-in-chief of Xinhua mentioned it in an editorial in a recent edition of "Seeking Truth," the journal of China's Communist Party. Examples include:
- In June 2005, the Southern Daily reported that someone removed pages from copies of its sister publication, the Southern Metropolitan Daily, that were distributed in the Da Gang township. The pages in question contained an article critical of the township's government.
- In April 2005, the South China Morning Post reported that Chinese public security officers detained one of its journalists as she tried to report on rioting in Zhejiang.
- In March 2005, Xinhua reported that public security authorities in Qingxu county, Shanxi province, "interfered with the regular interviews of a Xinhua reporter" and "illegally restricted his personal freedom."
- In January 2005, a journalist with the Public Broadcasting System program "Frontline," had her film confiscated by public security officials after she conducted an unauthorized interview in Xinjiang.