Chinese authorities threaten media covering Tibet: journalists

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China said journalists had experienced interference in the cities of Beijing, Chengdu and Xining, as well as in Lhasa.

"You don't want to know what will happen if you don't show us the footage," the club quoted police telling Finnish reporter Katri Makkonen, who was detained Tuesday in Gansu province, where Tibetan monks held protests against Chinese rule.

In several other locations, police barred reporters from carrying out their work and escorted them out of areas where forces were reportedly quelling unrest.

Tibetan regions erupted last week in the most serious anti-China riots in nearly 20 years. The exiled government of the Dalai Lama in the India town of Dharamshala has said hundreds of Tibetan protesters were killed in the crackdown on unrest.

Hundreds have also been detained in the regional capital of Lhasa, according to activists.

The interference comes after the club this week demanded that the government respect new regulations issued for the period up to and during the Beijing Olympics, allowing greater press freedoms for foreign journalists.

On Monday, the US State Department spokesman Tom Casey decried China's expulsion of foreign journalists from Tibet, calling it "disturbing and disappointing."

 

Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned Tuesday what it called steps taken by Beijing to prevent media coverage of demonstrations and an ongoing crackdown in Tibet. (AFP)