HRW: China Should Immediately Investigate Police Assaults Against Foreign Journalists

The Chinese government should immediately investigate a recent incident in which more than a dozen members of the foreign media were assaulted or intimidated by uniformed Chinese police and plainclothes thugs in downtown Beijing, Human Rights Watch said today. Failure to thoroughly investigate such incidents fosters a culture of official impunity for attacks against the press in China.

“It’s unacceptable that the police attack foreign media seeking to cover a public event,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The Chinese government should show it isn’t turning back the clock on media freedom by investigating this incident and holding the perpetrators accountable.”

Foreign journalists detained in China’s ‘Jasmine’ protests

New York, February 28, 2011– Chinese security officials’ concerted attack on the foreign press in a busy commercial street near Tiananmen Square in Beijing Sunday is a return to the restrictions international reporters faced before they were eased in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Police briefly detained more than a dozen foreign journalists and assaulted at least two at the site of a planned anti-government protest in Beijing on Sunday, according to international news reports. All were released after a few hours. Anonymous appeals for “Jasmine”-themed protests in Chinese cities, based on popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, began circulating online on February 19. The authors of the appeals call for an end to government corruption and an independent judiciary.