Beijing denies targeting Bloomberg after reporter blocked

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Beijing denied it had targeted Bloomberg by blocking its reporter from attending an event with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and China's Premier Li Keqiang. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:56pm, 3 Dec 2013Updated: 5:58pm, 3 Dec 2013

Beijing denied on Tuesday it had sought to target Bloomberg news agency by blocking one of its reporters from a joint event with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Bloomberg’s website has been blocked in China since it reported last year on the wealth of President Xi Jinping’s family, and it has recently been embroiled in controversy over an unpublished article about a tycoon’s links to senior Communist figures.

Robert Hutton, a UK-based Bloomberg reporter travelling as part of the entourage accompanying Cameron on his visit to China, was told at the last minute he would be unable to attend Monday’s joint Cameron-Li press statement because Chinese officials believed his participation “would not be appropriate”, according to multiple reports.

Cameron personally raised the matter later on Monday after a dinner with Xi, the Guardian newspaper reported.

Cameron’s office said in a statement that before the event, it “raised our concerns at senior levels and made clear it would be completely inappropriate to exclude journalists from the press statements”.

“When we heard what had happened today we expressed our deep concern to senior Chinese officials about journalists being blocked,” the statement added.