China: CFWIJ Condemns The Public Harassment Of Alice Su And Katrina Yu
Location: China
Date: July 26, 2021
Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Alice Su, colleague Katrina You were harangued, alongside their crew members, by members of the public in China.
On July 25th, The journalists were covering the devastation caused by torrential rains and floods in Zhengzhou, Henan province when they were surrounded by an angry mob who yelled at them to leave China. Both Alice and her fellow crew member found themselves in the middle of chaos with nowhere to escape. A video available on Twitter shows Alice trying to deescalate the situation by translating the crowds' messages. CFWIJ is dismayed by the hostile attitude towards foreign media in the country. This recent incident is a direct violation of the basic principles of press freedom. We urge the Chinese authorities to investigate this pattern of harassments and take necessary action.
Alice shared the details in a Twitter thread, describing how the angry crowd mistook her colleague as a BBC correspondent. They shouted at them to leave China. Alice shared in her Twitter thread, "At one point an angry man pulled out a phone with a blurry screenshot of another white man and yelled ‘this is him! It’s him!’ I told him no, that’s just another white guy, please calm down.” In a subsequent tweet, Alice continued, “Later on, we realized that was actually a screenshot of Robin Brant from the BBC, and that Weibo users had been calling for a manhunt to catch the ‘rumor-mongering foreigner’. They’d been photographing Mathias for days and posting shots online saying he must be the BBC."
This is @mare_porter and me in the streets of Zhengzhou yesterday. We were surrounded by an angry crowd shouting things like this is China, get out of China! I tried to de-escalate by “translating” the crowd’s message (Mathias is actually fluent in Chinese) https://t.co/uE7glR1kBS
— Alice Su (@aliceysu) July 25, 2021
She further stated while describing the details, "The black cap girl's message was that the foreign media is slandering China, Henan people are very united, recovery in Zhengzhou is fine and we should focus on reporting rescue efforts. She insisted we take the contact of a rescue team and go film them instead."
In another tweet, Alice described that she and her colleague were not the only ones to have faced public hostility. She quoted Katrina Yu, an Al Jazeera English correspondent. Katrina tweeted, "Sad sign of increasing anger and suspicion towards foreign media in China. When we filmed in front of the Zhengzhou subway, crowds were recording us and calling the authorities. This post on Weibo warns residents ‘don’t accept interviews from foreign media, don’t be used!’”
Sad sign of increasing anger and suspicion towards foreign media in #China. When we filmed in front of the #Zhengzhou subway crowds were recording us and calling the authorities. This post on Weibo warns residents “don’t accept interviews from foreign media, don’t be used!” pic.twitter.com/3gI1eUjsIn
— Katrina Yu (@Katmyu) July 24, 2021
The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the misdirected public anger towards Alice Su and Katrina Yu. We believe the women journalists were persecuted for carrying out their duties in the public’s best interest. The mistreatment of women journalists must be investigated by Chinese authorities, and the responsible citizens should be held accountable for their wrongdoing.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.