Journalists' club in China 'dismayed' by Olympics reporting environment


The Chinese Olympic Team arrives at the Olympic Closing Ceremonies in National Stadium at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Sunday. Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 21 (UPI) -- A journalist's club based in China said Monday it was "dismayed" the reporting environment for foreign journalists at the Winter Olympic Games did not live up to expected standards.

"The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China is dismayed that the conditions for independent reporting in China continue to fall short of international standards during the Winter Olympic Games," the FCCC said in a statement Monday.

For example, the professional association of Beijing-based journalists cited an Olympic ski event where a Beijing Olympic official prevented a foreign reporter from interviewing a Hong Kong athlete in the games' mixed zone, which is governed by International Olympic rules.

"The International Olympic Committee later called the incident 'an isolated' case," according to the FCCC statement. "However, government interference occurred regularly during the games, a symptom of the challenging operating environment for foreign media in China."

The press club which promotes freedom of the press and exchange with journalists stationed in China also said in its statement that reporters were "frequently tailed and manhandled" by security officials when reporting outside Olympic venues.

"Most visibly, a reporter with the Dutch national broadcaster NOS was hauled off camera during a live TV broadcast by plainclothes security men, despite the fact that he had been standing in a spot police directed him to," the FCCC pointed out in its statement.

The Guardian obtained NOS footage, which showed a security official grabbed Dutch reporter Sjoerd den Daas and dragged him away from where he was reporting near the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing during the games' opening ceremony.

"Unfortunately, this is increasingly the daily reality for journalists in China," NOS later tweeted, adding that he was "fine and could fortunately finish his story a few minutes later."

Several journalists were harassed online based on stories they wrote related to the Olympics, including some harassment by Chinese state media accounts and Chinese diplomats, according to the FCCC statement.

Journalists were also told they needed clearance from Chinese authorities to report in public areas despite rules allowing journalists to conduct interviews "without threat of state interference," and "freely in public areas," the FCCC statement said.

"Unfortunately, neither rule was enforced, at a time when global attention was trained on China more than ever," the statement said.