China forces Al Jazeera to close Beijing news bureau

[BanglaBhoot]

China has expelled the English language correspondent of Al Jazeera, prompting the Qatar-based channel to close its Beijing bureau, an Al Jazeera spokesman said on Tuesday.

Melissa Chan’s expulsion marks the first time an accredited foreign correspondent living in China has been ejected since 1998.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately answer a faxed request for an explanation of the expulsion, but Chinese officials are known to have expressed their anger at a documentary the channel aired last November on the alleged use of slave labor by prisoners in Chinese jails.

RELATED Where does China fit on the 10 least media free countries?

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told Scandinavian correspondents at a recent private dinner that the documentary had been “fabricated” according to two of the reporters present.

Ms. Chan played no role in making the program, which was produced by Al Jazeera’s London bureau, according to a spokesman for the channel.

During talks between Chinese and Al Jazeera officials earlier this year, the Chinese also accused Chan of unspecified violations of Chinese law. A spokesman for the channel said that Al Jazeera had repeatedly asked for clarification of the nature of these violations but had not been given one.

Chan had made a reputation for herself with a number of investigative reports on issues about which the Chinese authorities are sensitive, such as the violent confiscation of farmers’ land for development projects and the incarceration of citizens protesting such behavior in illegal “black jails” in Beijing.

The Chinese government’s refusal to renew Chan’s accreditation beyond the end of March or to accredit a replacement correspondent left Al Jazeera with “no choice other than to close its Beijing bureau,” the channel said in its statement.

Protesting the expulsion, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) said Chan’s ejection fit “a recent pattern of using journalist visas in an attempt to censor and intimidate foreign correspondents in China.”

In a survey of its members last year, the FCCC said, it had found 27 cases throughout the previous two years in which the Chinese authorities had made foreign reporters wait more than four months for visa approval, and 28 cases in which permanent postings or reporting visits had been canceled because requests for the required visas had been rejected or ignored by the Chinese authorities.

In six cases, reporters said they had been told by Foreign Ministry officials that their bureaus’ visa applications had been rejected or put on hold due to the content of the bureaus’ or the applicant’s previous coverage of Chinese affairs.

The FCCC said it “believes that foreign news organizations, not the Chinese government, have the right to choose who works for them in China, in line with international standards.”

“Just as China news services cover the world freely, we would expect that same freedom in China for any Al Jazeera journalist,” the channel’s director of news, Salah Negm, said in a statement about Chan’s expulsion. He said Al Jazeera would “continue to work with the Chinese authorities in order to reopen our Beijing bureau.”

Chan was refused a standard one-year foreign correspondent’s accreditation – without which reporters are not allowed to live in China – at the end of last year. Instead she was given a two month credential that was extended until the end of March.

On Monday evening she left China for the United States, where she has been offered a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University.

China forces Al Jazeera to close Beijing news bureau - CSMonitor.com

Al-Jazeera's role in the Arab Spring has probably made the Chinese nervous. Al-Jazeera appears to be an American front organization.

 

[Kaniska]

How come Al Jazeera is a US front paper? I was thinking as it is opposite one. My impression was that Al Jazeera promotes news pertaining to Islamic fundamentalism only?....May be i am wrong..

 

[Fanling Monk]

Miss Chan left China for the United States, where she has been offered a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University.


Isn't this suspicious? Perhaps an agent provocateur.

 

[somebozo]

Al Arhabia looks like a part of US - Al CIAda alliance an a twin sister of Trollywood.

90% news 10% propaganda.

 

[Pakistanisage]

Al Jazeera is an instrument of the USA hegemony just like its owner the Emir of Qatar.

The USA owns the rear end of all these Arab Kings and Princes.

You cannot claim Press Freedom if you are not free to begin with.

Good job China.

 

[Developereo]

Good riddance.

Al Jazeera is squarely part of the Western propaganda machine.

 

[xdrive]

LOL. Any news organization that doesn't toe Chinas line is "Western controlled" or "run by the U.S government"

I find Al Jazeera very balanced and fair, and if Al Jazeera was biased, i would say they are biased in support of Middle Eastern countries, not countries like the U.S.

I'm surprised you whip out the "Western" conspiracy theory line Developereo since you live in a "Western" country. Do you think the Australian government controls what Al Jazeera reports?

Al Jazeera is an instrument of the USA hegemony just like its owner the Emir of Qatar.

The USA owns the rear end of all these Arab Kings and Princes.

You cannot claim Press Freedom if you are not free to begin with.

Good job China.

These lines are continually spouted by people such as yourself just because Al Jazeera doesn't spin their stories in your countries favour.

Evidence is never provided next to these claims of course, surprise surprise.

Miss Chan left China for the United States, where she has been offered a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University.


Isn't this suspicious? Perhaps an agent provocateur.

Not very suspicious. Most Chinese who are targeted by the Chinese government leave for the safety of the United States and the only way the Chinese government lets you leave China is if you have a study visa for the U.S at a university, otherwise they won't let you leave.

 

[shuttler]

Miss Chan left China for the United States, where she has been offered a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University.

Isn't this suspicious? Perhaps an agent provocateur.

haha what a scam! now she is receiving in-kind payroll from usa!

 

[Fanling Monk]

LOL. Any news organization that doesn't toe Chinas line is "Western controlled" or "run by the U.S government"

I find Al Jazeera very balanced and fair, and if Al Jazeera was biased, i would say they are biased in support of Middle Eastern countries, not countries like the U.S.

I'm surprised you whip out the "Western" conspiracy theory line Developereo since you live in a "Western" country. Do you think the Australian government controls what Al Jazeera reports?



These lines are continually spouted by people such as yourself just because Al Jazeera doesn't spin their stories in your countries favour.

Evidence is never provided next to these claims of course, surprise surprise.



Not very suspicious. Most Chinese who are targeted by the Chinese government leave for the safety of the United States and the only way the Chinese government lets you leave China is if you have a study visa for the U.S at a university, otherwise they won't let you leave.

You tell me then why she receives a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University as soon as she gets to the US.

haha what a scam! now she is receiving in-kind payroll from usa!

She was probably on the US payroll originally. China has to rid of these NGOs from the west before it's too late.

 

[Developereo]

I'm surprised you whip out the "Western" conspiracy theory line Developereo since you live in a "Western" country. Do you think the Australian government controls what Al Jazeera reports?

By "Western" we mean a handful of oligarchs who dominate Western, and global, media. Most ordinary "Westerners", including the Australian govt., are just as much manipulated by these oligarchs as anyone else.

 

[King Solomon]

Good job. Al Jazeera is an agent of Arab monarchies = Agent of their masters (West), who are= China's adversary.

 

[shuttler]

Not very suspicious. Most Chinese who are targeted by the Chinese government leave for the safety of the United States and the only way the Chinese government lets you leave China is if you have a study visa for the U.S at a university, otherwise they won't let you leave.

check M Chan's passport! She is not a Chinese citizen and she is free to leave. No study visa is required!

 

[r3alist]

Al jazeera is not an Arabic channel by any stretch, it's a British one with an Arabic name.

http://www.richardsonmedia.co.uk/al jazeera origins.html


It's so biased it's own staff can't handle it.

 

[shuttler]

You tell me then why she receives a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University as soon as she gets to the US.

She was probably on the US payroll originally. China has to rid of these NGOs from the west before it's too late.

most of these people have multiple identities which are hidden behind their fronts like journalists, students, diplomats, businessman whatnots. how can a person like M Chan whose journalistc career is to focus only on ALL the negatives of China just like some of our notorious trolls here on PDF not be directly identified with people engaged for malicious activities in China?

 

[xdrive]

Al jazeera is not an Arabic channel by any stretch, it's a British one with an Arabic name.

http://www.richardsonmedia.co.uk/al jazeera origins.html


It's so biased it's own staff can't handle it.

So you have got your information from some random guys opinion blog and taken it as fact?

Wow. Some people never cease to amaze me.

I personally prefer the "Jews are behind the media" delusional conspiracy theory more than the "West are behind the media" it's much more entertaining.