China cracks down on foreign media ahead of protests | World News - Hindustan Times
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China cracks down on foreign media ahead of protests

AP | By, Beijing
Mar 03, 2011 10:09 PM IST

Chinese police are further intensifying pressure on foreign reporters, warning them to stay away from spots designated for Middle East inspired protests and threatening them with expulsion or a revoking of their credentials.

Chinese police are further intensifying pressure on foreign reporters, warning them to stay away from spots designated for Middle East inspired protests and threatening them with expulsion or a revoking of their credentials.

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The warnings show how unnerved the authorities are by the online calls for protests every Sunday.

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The appeals, which started two weeks ago, have attracted few outright demonstrators but many onlookers, loads of journalists and swarms of police.

Staff from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and numerous other overseas news organizations were called in for videotaped meetings with Beijing police on Wednesday and Thursday and told that reporters trying to film or interview near the proposed demonstration spots in Beijing or Shanghai this weekend would be punished.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said in a statement that some journalists reported being accused by police "of trying to help stir up a revolution, disrupt harmony in China and simply cause trouble."

The warnings ratchet up notices from police earlier this week that put a section of the Wangfujing shopping street in downtown Beijing and an area near People's Square in Shanghai off limits for foreign media.

However, a British broadcast journalist, who declined to be named in line with company policy, said her team was told that it was not allowed to film anywhere in China, including basic street scenes, without prior approval.

The extreme reaction signals a retreat since restrictions on foreign media were eased in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics.

In 2006, then foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao announced that local officials could not intervene in the work of foreign reporters doing interviews, though some sensitive areas, such as Tibet, remained off limits to reporters without special permits.

Foreign reporters have always been afforded greater latitude than domestic ones.

In a tense news conference on Thursday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu repeatedly said there was no change in the reporting regulations. Jiang said the rules were clear and that reporters were no longer journalists if they broke the law and created news.

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