City officials in eastern China have apologized to local journalists and issued a state-of-the-state crackdown on journalists after it emerged that authorities had tried to push them away and prevent them from reporting from the site of a deadly explosion. This was an unprecedented admission of invasion.
Authorities were shown harassing reporters from state broadcaster CCTV during a live broadcast near the site of a suspected gas leak explosion that killed seven people and injured 27 on Wednesday. The city of Sanhe, near Beijing, issued a public apology on Thursday.
Harassment of journalists, especially foreign reporters, is common in China but rarely sanctioned by the state.
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A statement posted on the city’s official website expressed “deep regret” over the treatment of CCTV reporters and other media workers. Authorities said they were trying to remove journalists from the scene due to concerns about a possible gas leak.
“The poor communication skills of front-line staff and their rough and simple manners caused misunderstandings among journalists and raised suspicions among the public, resulting in a negative impact on society,” the report said. said.
On Wednesday, March 13, 2024, Chinese journalists were shoved by Chinese security officials as they tried to secure coverage of an explosion in Sanhe City, Hebei Province, China. (AP Photo/Ng Hang-guan)
The incident was broadcast live on a midday newscast, a rare off-script moment for China’s tightly controlled state media. The Chinese government views the media as a propaganda tool and regularly issues directives on topics that are prohibited from being reported on.
The People’s Republic of China Journalists Association issued a statement defending the right of journalists to report from disaster sites. It stopped short of clearly condemning the actions of the Mikawa authorities.
Harassment of Chinese journalists is often directed at foreign reporters. Earlier this month, a Dutch journalist and cameraman were detained while covering a protest outside an investment bank in southwestern Sichuan province. Authorities forced journalists to the ground and used umbrellas to block cameras.
Foreign journalists are also often pursued by plainclothes police, especially when reporting from areas deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, such as western Xinjiang.
Such incidents are regularly condemned by the China Foreign Correspondents Association, a professional association.
However, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is the point of contact for foreign journalists in the country, has never publicly acknowledged or apologized for the harassment in recent memory.
China is also the country that imprisons the most journalists, with 44 in 2023, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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In recent years, China has also increasingly restricted journalists’ access to politicians and officials of all kinds.
This year, the Chinese government canceled the annual press conference by the prime minister. It was a 30-year tradition that marked one of the rare occasions when China’s top leaders took questions from journalists.
