China rejects EU's statement on 'harassment' of BBC journalist

China has rejected the statement from the European Union (EU) which accused Beijing of pressuring BBC correspondent and other foreign journalists, claiming that the remarks were not in accord with facts.

Beijing has dismissed any attack and slandering of China by fabricating fake news and disinformation in the name of freedom of speech and the press.

In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called upon China to abide by its obligations under national and international law and ensure the freedom of speech and press.

This comes as tensions between the western countries and China escalated since last month after the EU, along with the US, the UK and Canada, imposed travel and financial sanctions on officials accused of abuses in Xinjiang in China's northwest.

BBC correspondent John Sudworth, who was based in China for nine years, had left Beijing for Taiwan along with his wife, Yvonne Murray, a reporter for the Irish public broadcaster RTE, and their three children.

Both Sudworth and Murray have said they will continue to cover China from Taipei.

In response to these allegations, the Spokesperson of the Chinese Mission to the EU said on Saturday that BBC's China correspondent John Sudworth and his family have worked and lived in China for 9 years. There is no pressure or threat against them, Chinese state media, Global Times reported citing the Chinese mission.

"China has and will continue providing assistance to foreign correspondents for their reporting in China. Yet we firmly reject ideological prejudice against China, we firmly reject any conduct that breaches press work ethics and morality, and we firmly reject any attack and slandering of China by fabricating fake news and disinformation in the name of freedom of speech and the press," stressed the spokesperson.

According to The New York Times, the correspondent Sudworth said on Wednesday that he made the decision after being subjected to intensifying propaganda campaign targeting him and the BBC.

He also cited legal threats as well as the increasing difficulty of doing independent reporting in China without obstruction or harassment.

"This is the latest case of foreign correspondents being driven out of China as a result of continuous harassment and obstruction to their work, coming on top of the expulsion of at least 18 correspondents last year," the spokesperson said in a statement.

The departures of Sudworth and Murray are part of a larger recent exodus of foreign journalists from China.

Last year, the Chinese government expelled around 15 correspondents for American news organisations, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

According to The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC), 2020 saw the largest expulsion of foreign journalists since the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

At least 18 journalists were forced to leave, hurried out and their visas were cancelled over national security concerns. A US media correspondent was reported having to "take three COVID tests over five days" as she attempted to report from Xinjiang, where Chinese state media has routinely claimed the Muslim-minority Uighurs are prospering, not being detained.

The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) of China had barred the broadcasting of BBC World News on the mainland last month, claiming that it has done a "slew of falsified" reporting on issues such as human rights violations in Xinjiang based on interviews of victims surviving "re-education camps."

(ANI)

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