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Unabated violence against reporters in China

HONG KONG: Unabated violence against reporters in China, Hong Kong journalist was arrested and left injured while trying to interview a human rights lawyer in Beijing today, the second violent incident against the city’s reporters in China within a week.

TV footage showed police bundling cameraman Chui Chun-ming to the ground and dragging him into a van. Chui, who is from Hong Kong and works for the city’s Now TV channel but is based in Beijing, was released hours later after signing a letter of remorse.

Reporters from outside mainland China including those from semi-autonomous Hong Kong are usually given a much freer rein than domestic journalists, who have little opportunity to air their views in a country dominated by state media. Now TV expressed “extreme anger” over the “unreasonable and violent obstruction during their lawful reporting in Beijing”.

 The incident came four days after another Hong Kong journalist was kicked and beaten by two men while covering the tenth anniversary of a devastating earthquake in Sichuan.

The men claimed they were “ordinary people” but local residents said they were linked to the government, according to Hong Kong media.

Today’s footage showed police obstructing Chui and asking to see his press pass as he attempted to reach a hearing at the Beijing Lawyers Association.

The hearing was to decide whether human rights lawyer Xie Yan-yi, who Chui was trying to interview, should have his license revoked, according to Now TV.

Xie was one of the lawyers arrested in Beijing’s “709 crackdown” of 2015, which marked the largest ever clampdown on the legal profession in China.

When Chui asked the police to return his press pass after inspection several officers forced him to the ground, where two plainclothes men pinned his arms behind his back and pushed his head down.

He was then handcuffed and put in the van, with Xie also taken away in a police car.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association urged China to stop “uncivilized acts and suppression” of reporting work. The group handed a joint letter signed by local media to China’s liaison office in the city today.

M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.