China Warns Press; Reporters Protest Brutality

The Chinese government warned foreign correspondents Tuesday to cease “illegal” news coverage after journalists reported two nights of protests by Beijing University students.

Several foreign journalists have been beaten, kicked, harassed and dispersed at gunpoint by police recently while attempting to cover the campus protests and activities around Tian An Men Square in the heart of the city. The anti-government protests were held to commemorate the anniversary of the army’s crackdown on last year’s student-led democracy movement.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Beijing lodged a protest with the government Tuesday, objecting to “the unprovoked use of violence and physical abuse” of foreign journalists by paramilitary and plainclothes security police.

“It appears to us that these actions are an attempt to intimidate members of the foreign press and prevent us from carrying out legitimate reporting activities in China,” the correspondents’ letter of protest said.

Jim Munson, president of the Correspondents Club and a reporter for Canadian television, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday even before the correspondents’ protest could be delivered. A Foreign Ministry official told Munson that “the so-called protest . . . is utterly unreasonable” and that he will be held responsible for its consequences.

The official charged that some journalists violated city regulations by entering university campuses without formally applying to do so. He said “a small number” of foreign journalists have connections with Chinese engaged in illegal activities and “even colluded with them.”

Munson said he told the official that the Correspondents Club was protesting the physical abuse and detention of journalists who were “conducting legitimate work on the streets of Beijing.”

The Correspondents Club letter cited five cases of rough treatment of foreign journalists:

Armed paramilitary police struck Los Angeles Times correspondent David Holley and beat his wife, Fumiyo, with rifle butts outside the Beijing University campus.

Plainclothes police kicked Reuters photographer Richard Ellis in the head and smashed his camera.

A policeman severely beat West German television correspondent Gisela Mahlmann-Hermann of ZDF with a truncheon.

ABC correspondents Todd Carrel and Masaaki Serita-Ogushi were assaulted and detained.

CBS cameraman Bradley Simpson was physically mistreated and pieces of his equipment were seized.