05 April 2008
Harassment of western journalists on Tibet
(WSJ) Some Chinese nationalists have undertaken a campaign of harassment, including threats of violence, against foreign reporters who took part in the first government-arranged trip to Lhasa, for alleged bias in their coverage of Tibet. The intimidation efforts have included hundreds of calls and text messages to the cellphones of reporters who took part in the trip, including correspondents from The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Associated Press. The threats began after the cellphone numbers, Chinese names, and brief descriptions of several of the correspondents were published on a military-themed Internet bulletin board. Contributors to that site have boasted of making harassing phone calls, and posted their own violent threats. "Beat to death these unjust, conscienceless criminals", wrote one. It isn't clear how the contact information for the reporters who took part in the Lhasa trip made its way onto the internet. A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he was unaware of it.