China Bans Media From Zhejiang Environmental Protest

Posted on August 30, 2005 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HONG KONG - Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang succeeded in preventing any first-hand media coverage of an environmental protest in which thousands of villagers clashed with riot police, local residents said.

As villagers began their sit-in last week outside the Tian Neng Battery Factory in Meishan township, many local residents began calling local media hotlines to try to publicize concerns about high levels of lead in their children’s blood.

"This is a very difficult situation. The police have arrested a lot of people, and local residents are very angry. If you came here to interview local people, they would all tell you what’s going on here," one woman resident of Meishan told RFA’s Mandarin service.

"We were constantly in touch with media organizations about this issue, but not one of them came here to cover the story," she said.

No journalists allowed
"There were no reports about this in the local news. It was a huge story, and there were no journalists present."

Another Meishan resident confirmed that protesters had tried to get in touch with journalists.

"They didn’t want to come. It was a no-go area. I think they had to get approval from the news department of the government to come here," the man said.

"They were even arresting bystanders who had nothing to do with the protest."

The villagers were protesting what they said was lead pollution from the factory and high levels of the substance in their children's blood, the official English-language China Daily reported several days after the clashes took place.

They had previously staged a protest in June after 700 children in Meishan were found in May to have concentrations of lead in their blood exceeding normal levels.

Officials promise to test for pollutants
The paper quoted Changxing county health bureau director Hu Yili as saying that waste disposed by Tian Neng, just 600 meters (650 yards) from nine neighboring villages, might be to blame for the poisoning.

The Meishan government had promised it would collect air, earth and water samples to confirm the cause of the pollution, it said.

Scenes of popular unrest are becoming increasingly common as villagers in rural China vent their anger in face of indifferent or bullying authorities, often over corruption, pollution and the seizure of land for real estate development.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Fang Yuan. RFA Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Produced for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie.