China expulsion of foreign reporter criticized

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China expulsion of foreign reporter criticized

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China's expulsion of US reporter working for Al-Jazeera has drawn criticism from other journalists.

09 May,2012 09:39 am

However, a tight-lipped reaction was seen from Beijing as United States strongly condemned the expulsion.Melissa Chan is the first accredited foreign journalist to be expelled from China since 1998.The move, made public Tuesday by Al-Jazeera, is seen as Chinas latest attempt to punish international media whose reports the authoritarian government dislikes and sees as besmirching its global image.The expulsion seems to be taking Chinas anti-media policies to a new level, Bob Dietz, the Asia coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement.Chan was Al-Jazeeras only English-language reporter in China, and the Qatar-based network said in a statement that it had to close its English-language services bureau because her press credentials and visa were not extended.Chan is a U.S. citizen who worked for the network in China for five years. She had reported extensively on sensitive topics such as illegal seizures of farmland and the imprisonment of petitioners from the countryside in unofficial black jails.Fourteen of the 18 questions posed at the Foreign Ministrys regular briefing Tuesday concerned Chan, but spokesman Hong Lei would not discuss her status, saying only that journalists must follow Chinas laws and regulations. All the questions about Chan were missing from the official transcript later posted on the ministrys website, in keeping with Beijings occasional practice of ignoring sensitive questions.An official at the ministrys news office said she was unaware of gaps in the transcript and asked for a faxed list of questions about it.Though widely reported in international media and condemned by governments and professional groups, Chans expulsion hasnt been mentioned in Chinese state media.The U.S. State Department said it had followed Chans case closely and was disappointed in the Chinese governments decision not to renew her accreditation.Chan has left China and will be returning to California, where she will be taking up a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University.