The China Foreign Correspondents Association is concerned about some recent cases of harassment of journalists covering the floods in Henan province. The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) warns that journalists are endangered by the rhetoric of organizations with ties to the Communist Party.
In that regard, an incident is cited with the BBC’s China correspondent Robin Brant. He was harassed online after the Henan Youth Communist League called on 1.6 million followers via social media network Weibo to report where he was hanging out.
Shortly afterwards, reporters for the Los Angeles Times and German broadcaster Deutsche Welle were also harassed at a flooded market, because they were thought to be the BBC reporter. The clothing and camera of the Deutsche Welle reporter were seized. Both were held back for some time when they wanted to leave.
The Deutsche Welle reporter was accused by the mob of, among other things, spreading disinformation:
Employees of the Qatari news channel Al Jazeera and the international news agency AP have also experienced problems with their reporting on the floods. For example, the Al Jazeera team was followed and filmed and AP journalists were stopped and reported to the police. The French news agency AFP has been forced to remove filmed material.
According to the Foreign Correspondents Association, the harassment is partly a result of Chinese nationalism and is sometimes directly encouraged by Chinese officials. In particular, the FCCC also says it is concerned about threats against Chinese employees of foreign media. They would be falsely accused online of espionage and treason, purely because of their work.