BEIJING - Officials in a Chinese city near Beijing apologised after a state media journalist was prevented from covering a fatal explosion, an incident that underscores the difficulty of reporting in the world’s second-largest economy.
A clip from state broadcaster China Central Television shows one of their reporters working near the scene of a blast resulting from a suspected gas leak that killed at least seven people on March 13 in Yanjiao town, just east of the capital.
Midway through her report, local security officials block her camera and say “it’s too dangerous.”
“Due to the frontline staff’s poor communication skills and rough and simplistic approaches, it has triggered a misunderstanding from media friends and questions from public opinion,” officials handling the disaster said in a statement on March 14.
The government “immediately severely criticised the staff involved, and sent officers to express their apologies to the relevant journalist friends on several occasions.”
China ranked 179th in the latest World Press Freedom Index, one spot above North Korea.
Under President Xi Jinping, China has cut releases of official information and heightened its sensitivity over state secrets.
That could lead to increasing risks for foreign firms as they contend with the increasingly catch-all definition of national security.
Reporters can face harsh punishments for any violations.
Australian journalist Cheng Lei said in 2023 that she was detained in China for nearly three years because she shared an official briefing document just before the government released it.
The incident in Yanjiao has prompted some anger in China.
The topic was one of the most-read on the social media site Weibo on March 14, attracting some 110 million views.
“There are so many people that are closer to the site than the reporters, but you only choose to persuade the reporters to leave,” one Internet user said.
A media industry organisation linked to the Communist Party has also criticised the local security officials for their handling of the matter.
“Journalists have the right to conduct legitimate interviews,” the All-China Journalists Association said in a statement.
Local governments “should not simply and roughly obstruct media reporters from performing their normal duty in order to control public opinion.”
China is revising an emergency response law that could make independent reporting on disasters like the one on March 13 more difficult, encouraging journalists to rely on government press releases. BLOOMBERG
