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My Take | Western journos are truth-seekers, Chinese hacks are spies
- Call it double standard or an unspoken reporting rule in the mainstream Anglo-American press that Chinese journalists and academics who are investigated, detained, expelled, denied a visa or otherwise harassed by their Western host countries don’t deserve a free-press defence
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Why you can trust SCMP
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“I knew some of the people involved,” said Nury Vittachi, the prominent Hong Kong journalist and author, “and the allegations were just ridiculous.”
He was referring to the US Justice Department’s demand, in late August, for five American subsidiaries of Sing Tao newspaper to register as foreign agents. The newspaper is Hong Kong’s oldest in the Chinese language.
I subscribe to its Canadian edition, read it every day and find it quite innocuous. Maybe the American versions are different, full of Chinese state propaganda and run by Chinese intelligence operatives. You never know!
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In his YouTube clip on the channel Fridayeveryday, Vittachi refers to other incidents of Western state censorship and expulsion of Chinese journalists and academics. Strangely, he points out, you rarely hear about them.
The United States had limited visas for Chinese journalists to 90 days and stopped renewing them from May last year. However, China and the US have agreed to ease restrictions on foreign journalists working in the two countries following the virtual summit between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden last week.
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