RSF decries Chinese police violence against journalists

When Chui Chun-ming, a Hong Kong cameraman working for Now TV, tried to talk to a human rights lawyer in Beijing on 16 May, police grabbed him and slammed him to the ground. They then forcibly took him off to a police station where he was held for four hours and made to sign a letter admitting to having “obstructed officials.”

Two other Hong Kong journalists, Edward Lui of Commercial Radio and Han Ho-fai of Cable TV HK, were covering the tenth anniversary of the earthquake in the southwestern province of Sichuan on 12 May when they were attacked by men in civilian dress. The assailants tried unsuccessfully to seize Lui’s equipment and then beat Han, who had filmed the scene with his mobile phone.

RSF joins the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) in condemning these unacceptable attacks.

“This violence is indicative of the contempt in which the Chinese security forces hold journalists,” said Cédric Alviani, the head of RSF’s East Asia bureau. “We call on the Chinese government to put an end to this deliberate policy of intimidation and harassment of the media.”

In its annual report in February, the FCCC deplored the Chinese government’s open hostility towards representatives of media outlets that escape its censorship. China continues to be ranked 176th out of 180 countries in RSF's latest World Press Freedom Index.