Foreign Reporters In China Harassed, Report Confirms

Foreign correspondents in China are facing "unprecedented hurdles" in their reporting from the country, an annual survey published on Monday by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) has found, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Photo Insert: The FCCC office in Hong Kong

Of those who took part, 99 percent said they felt working conditions did not meet international standards. "The FCCC is troubled by the breakneck speed by which media freedom is declining in China," a statement from the FCCC said.

In the run-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics, which begin on Friday, 60 percent of the 127 respondents criticized the insufficient information provided by the organizers about events. Almost a third of respondents complained of being excluded from events that would have been open to other media.

Almost half of respondents said that their offices were understaffed as they were unable to bring journalists into the country. Visa denials, surveillance, intimidation, and harassment were reported in daily work.

"As a result, reporting from China is suffering," the FCCC statement said. China correspondents unable to report directly from the country have taken up residence in Taipei, Singapore, Sydney, Seoul, or even London, it said.

Meanwhile, those able to work in the country routinely suffer significant restrictions on their work, the report says, with 62 percent saying they had been prevented from reporting at least once by police or other officials.

Of those who had visited Xinjiang, the region of northwest China where persecution of the Muslim Uyghurs has been the subject of international condemnation, 88 percent reported being harassed.

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