Add China to the list of countries that is more than ever cracking down on those who might communicate a non-p.r. message to the world and chronicle repression. And, the Christian Science Monitor reports, it’s part of a larger package of clamp-down moves to keep a lid on politically assertive citizens:
The Chinese government is threatening foreign correspondents that their visas will be revoked if they continue to try to report on demonstrations held as part of a Chinese “Jasmine Revolution.”
The move is the latest in a series of harsh measures authorities have taken recently, seeking to ensure that popular movements aimed at overthrowing autocratic regimes in the Middle East do not spread to China.
Over the past 10 days, scores of human rights activists and noted lawyers have been detained, disappeared, or put under house arrest, according to reports gathered by Human Rights in China, a New York based watchdog organization. The word “jasmine” has been censored from many websites.
The Chinese government “goes from moments of great confidence to moments when they seem scared of their own shadow,” says Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a historian of China at the University of California. “This seems like one of those ‘what are they thinking?’ moments.”
The Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report blog:
Is China having second thoughts about relaxing rules on foreign journalists?
The country’s foreign ministry appeared to deliver an unequivocal answer at its most recent press briefing.
“There’s no change, there are no steps backwards,” ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Thursday. “There is only moving forward.”
Ms. Jiang was responding to one of several requests for clarification after dozens of foreign reporters were summoned to meetings by Beijing police Wednesday and Thursday and told of new restrictions on reporting in public places.
Those meetings followed the harassment—and in one case, the rather severe beating–of several foreign journalists by Beijing police over the weekend at a site in downtown Beijing chosen by online activists as the site of silent “Jasmine” protests.
AND:
In a warning to members issued Thursday, the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of China said foreign reporters in both Beijing and Shanghai had been called into meetings set up “like a formal interrogation” and warned to ask permission from authorities ahead of time before setting out to do reporting–and not just in designated “Jasmine” protest sites.
“Journalists are being told the requirement to obtain permission prior to reporting in open spaces applies to all of China,” the FCCC notice said.
As the FCCC noted, such restrictions appear to a roll-back of more open reporting rules, initially instituted in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics and made permanent shortly after the games ended, which only require journalists to secure permission for interviews from the individuals or organizations they want to interview.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.