01 January 2008
Foreign journalists report continued harassment in China
(AP) Foreign journalists working in China face continued harassment despite new reporting rules brought in for the Olympic games, according to a report by the Beijing-based Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC). The authorities relaxed restrictions on foreign journalists at the beginning of 2007, exempting them from having to apply for permission to travel and conduct interviews. But the FCCC said it received more than 180 reports of interference in journalists' work in 2007, including beatings and intimidation by local plainclothes thugs. The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and Xinjiang still remain difficult places in which to work due to official obstruction and harassment, the FCCC said, and journalists working in both of these places were followed or detained, or their sources were intimidated.