Chinese city officials issue a rare apology after authorities harass journalists on live TV

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — City officials in eastern China apologized to local journalists after authorities were shown pushing them and trying to obstruct reporting from the site of a deadly explosion, in a rare acknowledgment of state aggression against journalists.

The city of Sanhe, near Beijing, issued a public apology Thursday after authorities were shown harassing reporters from state broadcaster CCTV during a live broadcast near the site of a suspected gas leak explosion that killed seven and injured 27 on Wednesday.

Harassment of journalists — including foreign reporters — is common in China but almost never acknowledged by the state.

A statement on the city’s official website expressed “deep regret” over the treatment of the CCTV reporters and other media workers. It said authorities were trying to remove the journalists from the site because they were concerned about a potential gas leak.

“The poor communication skills of our frontline staff and their rough and simplistic methods caused misunderstandings among journalists and doubts among the public, resulting in a negative social impact,” it said.

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The harassment, shown live during the midday newscast, was a rare off-script moment for China’s tightly controlled state media. Beijing regards media as propaganda tools and regularly issues directives about topics that are off-limits for coverage.

The All-China Journalists Association put out a statement defending the journalists’ right to report from disaster sites. It fell short of explicitly condemning the Sanhe authorities’ actions.

Asked about the behavior in Sanhe during a regular press briefing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman referred reporters to the city’s statement.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China welcomes foreign journalists to “conduct interviews and reports in accordance with the law and regulations.”

“If any problems come up, our communication channels are open,” he said.

Foreign journalists are often harassed, manhandled or followed by plainclothes police while reporting in China, and their sources may be threatened, interrogated or detained.

Earlier in March, a Dutch journalist and a camera operator were detained while reporting on a protest outside an investment bank in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Authorities shoved the journalist to the ground and used umbrellas to block the camera.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, a professional group in Beijing, regularly condemns such actions. However, the Foreign Ministry, which is the point of contact for foreign journalists in the country, has not in recent memory publicly acknowledged or apologized for the harassment.

For Chinese journalists, refusing to toe the official line may translate into imprisonment or being pushed out of the profession. China has the highest number of imprisoned journalists in the world — 44 in 2023, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Over the past few years, Beijing has also increasingly restricted journalists’ access to politicians and officials of any kind.

This year, China canceled the annual news conference by the premier — a 30-year tradition that constituted one of the rare times a top Chinese leader took questions from journalists.