MCLC: Biden criticizes foreign press crackdown (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: Biden criticizes foreign press crackdown (1)
***********************************************************

Provides troublesome details about New York Times journalists facing
difficulty getting their visas approved. This is unprecedented.

Paul

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Source: Washington Post (12/5/13):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/biden-meets-with-journalists-concerned-
about-chinas-recent-crackdown-on-foreign-media/2013/12/05/fd3d280e-5d8d-11e
3-95c2-13623eb2b0e1_story.html

Biden forcefully complains to Chinese leaders about crackdown on foreign
news media
By David Nakamura

BEIJING — Vice President Biden forcefully complained to Chinese leaders
about threats to expel U.S. journalists as part of a government crackdown
on foreign media organizations, officials said Thursday.

Biden met privately Thursday with a group of foreign journalists who are
being threatened with expulsion, and reporters were told that he brought
up the issue at all three of his meetings with China’s top leaders,
including President Xi Jinping.

Some of the affected journalists expressed hope that with Biden personally
lending his weight and potential loss of face to their cause, the chances
that their visas would be granted at the last minute would increase.

Ten journalists from the New York Times and at least 14 at Bloomberg News
have not yet received visas to remain in China, according to one
journalist briefed on the Biden meeting. In addition to the Times and
Bloomberg, other media organizations represented at the meeting with Biden
included the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Reuters news
agency, as well as the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.

Biden reportedly registered his concerns directly with Xi during a
wide-ranging bilateral meeting a day earlier, and he publicly denounced
the practice of intimidating journalists in a speech to U.S. business
executives Thursday morning in Beijing.

“Innovation thrives where people breathe freely, speak freely, are able to
challenge orthodoxy, where newspapers can report the truth without fear of
consequences,” Biden said during his remarks. “We have many disagreements,
and some profound disagreements, on some of those issues right now, in the
treatment of U.S. journalists. But I believe China will be stronger and
more stable and more innovative if it respects universal human rights.”

The Chinese government has threatened not to issue or renew work visas for
journalists from the New York Times, Bloomberg News and other
organizations in the wake of critical stories. And the Times reported last
month that Bloomberg editors killed two stories out of fear that the
company’s journalists would be expelled, an allegation that Bloomberg
officials denied.

The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters and Financial Times all
have Chinese Web sites or services that have been blocked off and on over
the years. London-based Reuters was believed to have been included in the
meeting with Biden because American reporter Paul Mooney was refused a
visa after waiting eight months to begin a new assignment in China for the
agency.

In New York, Times executive editor Jill Abramson said in a statement
Thursday: “Unfettered coverage of China is a crucial issue at a time when
it is such an important and compelling story. We have made a major
commitment to covering China and are eager that our staff can continue to
work there normally.”

A Bloomberg spokeswoman in Singapore declined to comment.

China has long held up visas or denied them to reporters in an effort to
retaliate for coverage critical of ruling Communist Party officials, but
U.S. reporters say the practice has grown more intense under Xi, who
assumed the presidency in March. Instead of individual reporters being
targeted, entire news organizations are facing threats that they will be
kicked out of the country, the journalists said.

Biden met with more than a dozen reporters. Biden aides characterized the
meeting as off the record and declined to comment on the nature of the
discussions.

But Ian Johnson, a New York Times writer based in China, wrote on Twitter:
“China is about to expel all NYT and Bloomberg correspondents from China —
unprecedented. Biden raised issue with Xi.”

In a second tweet responding to someone who asked whether it was really
true, Johnson wrote: “sad but true; 24 correspondents without a visa.
first one leaves Dec. 17. All out by Dec. 31, unless govt changes course.”

Journalists at the Times bureau, who spoke on condition of anonymity for
fear of government reprisals, said that none of them have received visas.
Many are not even able to apply for a visa because their press cards have
not been renewed yet.

The few whose visa applications were successfully accepted were told in
recent days by the government to pick up their passports without a new
visa inside.

Many remain hopeful the Chinese government is merely delaying the granting
of visas, a tactic it has often used in recent years.

Because of heavy Chinese government restrictions on foreign journalists,
reporters are given visas valid for only a calendar year and must reapply
for new visas at the end of each year.

The process requires getting new press card from China’s Foreign Ministry
before applying for a new visa. The press card also expires at end of each
year.

Roughly half of the New York Times journalists who applied for their press
cards this fall were able to obtain them, but the other half — who tried
to get press cards after the Times ran a sensitive story on Nov. 13 — were
not able to.

That story by David Barboza investigated ties between JPMorgan Chase and
the daughter of China’s former prime minister, Wen Jiabao.

Nolan Barkhouse, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, said in a
statement Thursday: “We are deeply concerned that foreign journalists in
China face restrictions that impede their ability to do their jobs,
including extended delays in processing journalist visas, restrictions on
access to ‘sensitive’ locations and individuals, pressure on their local
staff, blocked Web sites and reports of hacking of media organizations. We
have raised our concerns about the treatment of journalists and media
organizations repeatedly with the Chinese government and will continue to
do so.”

The U.S. Embassy has been working on the issue for months, having
increased its efforts after meeting with journalists facing visa problems.

When one New York Times journalist tried to pick up a new press card after
Barboza’s story was published, the reporter was told by a government
bureaucrat that the card was not ready even though it was in full view on
the official’s desk, according to journalists at the Times.

Several foreign journalists noted that not having their visas renewed
would not only force them to leave the country at the end of the month,
but would require their families to leave as well, since Chinese residency
visas for relatives are contingent on the journalists’ visas.

The Washington Post sought unsuccessfully from 2009 to 2012 to obtain a
resident visa for Andrew Higgins, a correspondent designated as China
bureau chief. Higgins has since left the newspaper.

William Wan and Simon Denyer contributed to this report.