Foreign journalists in China complain of growing abuse from officials, report says
One in 12 correspondents claims to have been manhandled or beaten in 2017, BBC reporter says he was punched
Working conditions for foreign correspondents in China deteriorated last year, with journalists reporting being beaten, detained and harassed, according to a survey published on Tuesday.
Almost half of more than 100 correspondents were subjected to some form of interference in 2017 while attempting to gather information, according to the report by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.
Twenty-three per cent said they were physically obstructed from accessing a location and 8 per cent said they were manhandled or beaten.
BBC reporter Matthew Goddard was quoted as saying that unknown individuals tried to smash his camera equipment after he refused to hand over footage, and “physically punched” him.
The FCCC said the results “provide strong evidence to suggest that, from an already very low baseline, reporting conditions are getting worse”.
Reporting grew more difficult in many areas, but particularly in the vast northwestern region of Xinjiang, the homeland of the Uygurs – a mostly Muslim ethnic minority experiencing Chinese cultural and religious repression.