US voices concern to China over media crackdown

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US ambassador to Beijing, Jon Huntsman, voiced “deep concerns” to the Chinese authorities over a harsh crackdown on foreign journalists, a US official said Monday.

“We are deeply concerned that the Chinese authorities did not protect the safety and property of these journalists, and we expect them to hold the perpetrators accountable,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

Crowley added that Huntsman had contacted his counterparts in the Chinese foreign ministry to express “our deep concerns” over the incidents.

Huntsman met with several American and other China-based foreign journalists who “had their equipment seized, were illegally detained, harassed, and at least in one case, severely beaten,” he said.

The US embassy in Beijing said it was aware of reports that foreign reporters had been “detained or physically harassed” and called on China to ensure their rights, as well as to respect the public’s right to freedom of expression.

Bloomberg News said on Monday that one of its journalists was assaulted as Chinese security personnel staged an aggressive clampdown in Beijing during the weekend to thwart a call for public rallies.

The incident took place Sunday as hundreds of police swarmed the capital’s Wangfujing shopping street, which had been designated as an anti-government protest site for the second straight weekend in an anonymous online appeal.

The Bloomberg journalist was repeatedly punched and kicked by a group of at least five men in plainclothes — apparently security personnel — who also took his video camera and detained him in a nearby store, the news agency said.

He was later taken to a police station by uniformed personnel before being released, it said. His camera was later returned.

Police staged a show of force at Wangfujing, restricting access to the shopping area, aggressively pushing away foreign reporters with cameras and briefly detaining several. Police eventually cleared most people from the site.