{"id":12572,"date":"2021-03-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/nieuws\/foreign-journalists-say-china-blocked-independent-reporting-in-tibet\/"},"modified":"2021-03-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T23:00:00","slug":"foreign-journalists-say-china-blocked-independent-reporting-in-tibet","status":"publish","type":"nieuws","link":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/en\/news\/foreign-journalists-say-china-blocked-independent-reporting-in-tibet\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign journalists say China blocked independent reporting in Tibet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Chinese government restricted foreign journalists\u2019 ability to report in Tibet last year while obstructing coverage of COVID-19 and carrying out the largest expulsion of foreign journalists from China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those are some of the troubling findings in the Foreign Correspondents\u2019 Club of China\u2019s 2020 annual report, \u201cTrack, Trace, Expel: Reporting on China Amid a Pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report, released March 1, 2021, evaluates reporting conditions in China, which annexed Tibet more than 60 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FCCC based the report on a survey of 150 journalists representing news organizations from 30 countries and regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access to Tibet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The report notes the Chinese government restricts access to the Tibet Autonomous Region, which is the only region that China requires foreign journalists to apply for permission before entering. China often denies that permission, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report says China\u2019s State Council and Ministry of Foreign Affairs occasionally organize government-supervised trips to the TAR, which spans most of central and western Tibet. However, they \u201ccarefully choose which journalists and organizations are allowed to participate,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of those trips to the TAR last year, journalists were not able to report independently, with government handlers tightly controlling their schedules and police following them if they tried to visit places on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur minders in Tibet became very nervous when some foreign media journalists tried to use their drones,\u201d one foreign journalist told the FCCC. \u201cThey said, \u2018Tibet is a restricted area\u2019 when asked why reporters could not fly their drones in Tibet, which does not geofence drones. Our minders said that \u2018you still have to have special permission\u2019 to fly drones there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restrictions on US journalists<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Another state-run trip last year stopped in the TAR and Tibetan areas of Qinghai province. However, US journalists and outlets said they were not able to join, with officials telling several correspondents the trip was \u201cfull,\u201d according to the FCCC report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report notes the US passed a law<\/a> in 2018 designed to pressure the Chinese government to give Americans journalists, diplomats and ordinary citizens the same level of access to Tibet that Chinese citizens have to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the law, called the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, the State Department announced in July 2020 that it had banned Chinese officials from entering the US<\/a> over their role in keeping Americans out of Tibet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, President Biden said in his campaign that he would \u201cinsist that the Chinese government restore access to Tibet for US citizens, including our diplomats and journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That promise was part of Biden\u2019s longer statement on Tibet<\/a>, in which he said that the \u201cBiden-Harris administration will stand up for the people of Tibet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restrictions by China<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The FCCC report states that 6 of 8 correspondents who tried to report from Tibetan areas\u2014such as in Sichuan and Gansu provinces\u2014said they faced restrictions and prohibitions from the Chinese government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, Chinese officials \u201cdramatically stepped up efforts\u201d to limit the work of foreign correspondents across the country in 2020, the report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll arms of state power\u2014including surveillance systems introduced to curb coronavirus\u2014were used to harass and intimidate journalists, their Chinese colleagues, and those whom the foreign press sought to interview,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disturbing developments include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n