The Beijing Correspondent – John Sudworth was forced to move out for his coverage on Uyghur Muslim Camps in Xinjiang.
The European Union (E.U.) has accused China of harassing the United Kingdom (U.K.) based BBC News Channels’ Beijing Correspondent and forcing him to move to Taiwan.
The Beijing Correspondent – John Sudworth was forced to move out for his coverage on Uyghur Muslim Camps in Xinjiang. Sudworth, who won awards for his coverage on Uyghur Muslims, left the city with his wife – Yvonne Murray.
E.U. has urged China to abide by its international legal obligations to ensure freedom of speech and press. China, on its part, has denounced the reports of ill-treatment of Uyghur Muslims and said it is unaware of any threat to Sudworth, except the legal action which is being taken to challenge his reporting.
Speaking on the occasion, the Vice-President of European Commission – Josep Borrell Fontelles said, “The EU has repeatedly expressed its concerns to the Chinese authorities at the undue working restrictions imposed on foreign journalists and reported related harassment.”
Sudworth also said that he and his family were followed by Chinese Police in plain clothes to the Airport. BBC, however, appreciated Sudworth for his 9 years of work in Beijing.
Taking it to twitter, the official twitter handle of BBC Press News Team tweeted,
Our China correspondent @TheJohnSudworth has relocated. pic.twitter.com/G1NS0hUUWK
— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) March 31, 2021
The western powers, including E.U., U.K. and United States (U.S.) have accused China of torturing Uyghur Muslims in detention camps, which it calls vocational training centres. Uyghurs have complained of cultural, religious and economic discrimination. They live under a full-fledged police State with extensive controls and restrictions upon their religious, cultural and social life. They are not allowed to own books about Uyghurs, grow a beard or have a prayer rug. Besides, the Government had also installed cameras in the homes of private citizens. However, China has always denied these claims.
In a series of tweets, the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson of China – Hua Chunying tweeted,
.@JosepBorrellF @ExtSpoxEU Some facts for your information:
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) April 2, 2021
1. John Sudworth left China's mainland on his own accord without notifying relevant department or fulfilling due procedures. BTW, is BBC a EU media outlet? pic.twitter.com/UTHD6zli01
She further tweeted,
Asking E.U. to not to interfere in China’s internal matter, she posted, “If the EU really wants to abide by obligations under international law, please stop interfering in China’s domestic affairs, stop spreading misinformation about China & tell your US ally to stop the political suppression on Chine<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>2. If Sudworth was indeed under threat, he could have called the police. But he didn't, because no one threatened him.</p>— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) <a href=”https://twitter.com/SpokespersonCHN/status/1377989528669941766?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 2, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>se journalists.”
She also said that if any correspondent is facing harassment then they should let them know. She said that falsely accusing China will raise doubts on the credibility of E.U.
In his report, Sudworth said, “The irony is, of course, that at the same time that the space for foreign journalism is shrinking in China, the Communist Party has been investing heavily in its media strategy overseas, taking full advantage of the easy access to a free and open media.”
Sudworth also said that China’s “wolf-warrior” diplomats unleash furious tweet-storms, lambasting foreign reporting – while denying their own citizens access to those very same foreign platforms – in an intensive, co-ordinated strategy across multiple platforms.
Meanwhile, the number of international media organisations reporting from China is shrinking. Last year China 18 correspondents including New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Separately, in February 2021, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the Government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the U.K., revoked the license as Star China Media Limited (SCML), which owns the licence for CGTN, does not had editorial responsibility over the news channel. Ofcom accused SCML of acting as the distributor, rather than the provider of the news channel. It also rejected the proposal by CGTN to transfer the license to a new entity as it would still be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. China retaliated by suspending BBC’s right to broadcast in China accusing it of promoting false propaganda against the Chinese Communist Party, the Uyghur detention camps and China’s handling of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
