FCCC Calls on China to Allow Reporters Access to Tibetan Areas

Published on Mar 19, 2008 - 6:38:05 AM

By: Foreign Correspondents Club of China

BEIJING, MAR. 17, 2008 -- The Foreign Correspondents Club of China urges the Chinese government to immediately allow correspondents into Tibetan areas for news coverage.

"Reporting interference is not in the interest of the Chinese government which is trying to show a more open, transparent and accountable image to the world," said FCCC President Melinda Liu."

The FCCC has been informed of two dozen reporters who have been turned away from or forced to leave Tibetan areas, including Lhasa in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Xiahe in Gansu Province. Some reporters have been told they were being barred due to police action. Government censorship of the internet and international television broadcasts is also hampering journalists' work.

"Such interference is not in keeping with reporting regulations adopted during the Olympics period -- and is especially not in keeping with the international community's expectations of an Olympic host nation," said Liu.

When Beijing was bidding for the Olympics in 2001, Wang Wei, Secretary General of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), promised to give international media "complete freedom to report when they come to China."

On January 1, 2007 China introduced temporary Olympic-period regulations allowing foreign journalists to interview any organizations or individuals who consent. The regulation expires on October 17, 2008, after the Paralympic Games.

Website: www.fccchina.org

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