Chinese police rough up British TV crew at Olympics

by Charles Whelan | Agence France Presse via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
August 13, 2008

Chinese police roughed up a British TV crew and stopped them covering a pro-Tibet protest, witnesses said, in the latest case of interference with media freedom at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Uniformed police pounced on John Ray, China correspondent for Independent Television News (ITN), shortly after protesters unfurled a pro-Tibet banner near the main Olympic complex, witnesses and the reporter said.

His cameraman Ben England was also manhandled and prevented from filming the protest, they said.

Pro-Tibetan independence group Students for a Free Tibet said two protesters who unfurled the banner were arrested while six other members of the group were also detained for protesting nearby.

Ray said he was wrestled to the ground and dragged into a nearby restaurant where he was forcibly held down by uniformed and plainclothes officers who also stamped on his hands.

Ray, who is fully accredited to report in Beijing during the Olympic Games, said he was detained for around 20 minutes and his equipment bag was confiscated.

"This was an assault in my mind, I am incredibly angry about this," Ray told AFP minutes after he was released.

His shoes were scuffed, the back of his trousers and shirt were covered in grime and he displayed some bruising on his hand.

He said he told the officers in Chinese that he was a journalist during the incident, during which he was also asked for his views on Tibetan independence.

"I am just wondering where this fits in with China's solemn undertaking to allow us to report freely during the Olympics," he said.

The British embassy said it had expressed "strong concern" to the Chinese authorities while the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) in Beijing demanded that police apologise to the ITN reporter.

"The FCC is appalled by this treatment of an accredited journalists within half a mile of the main Olympic stadium," said Club president Jonathan Watts.

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