Ex-ABC bureau chief gives details of threats, interrogations before he left China

Matthew Carney says he and his family faced months of intimidation as he waited for his visa to be renewed in 2018

He says he did not tell his story until now to avoid jeopardising the broadcaster’s operations and staff in China

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Matthew Carney, head of the ABC’s China bureau from 2016 to 2018, with his daughter Yasmine, who was 14 at the time. They were pressured into confessing to a visa violation. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:18pm, 21 Sep 2020Updated: 11:07pm, 21 Sep 2020

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s former China bureau chief has revealed details of the threats and interrogations from Chinese security officials that led to his departure from the country nearly two years ago.

Matthew Carney, head of the bureau from 2016 to 2018, on Monday published an account of his forced exit from China after he and his 14-year-old daughter were required to confess on video to alleged visa violations.

He said he chose not to tell his story previously to avoid jeopardising the ABC’s operations and staff in China, but that changed after ABC correspondent Bill Birtles and the Australian Financial Review’s Michael Smith were evacuated from the country earlier this month.

“My story – which occurred two years earlier – suggests that there is more to their actions against foreign journalists than tit-for-tat reprisals as the Chinese portray it,” Carney wrote.

Matthew Carney said he was berated for stories portraying China in a negative light. Photo: Handout

His story reflects the increasingly tough reporting environment for foreign correspondents in China, and comes as relations between Beijing and Canberra have plummeted, in part over the treatment of their respective journalists. The departure of Birtles and Smith means that for the first time in decades there are no accredited Australian media journalists in mainland China, and it follows the expulsion of 17 foreign correspondents from China in the first half of the year.

Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei was also detained in China in August on national security charges.