China apologises for roughing up journalists on eve of Games

AFP
Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008

Chinese police Tuesday apologised for roughing up two Japanese journalists as Beijing’s Olympic commitment to allow foreign media freedom came under scrutiny three days before the Games opened.

The apology came after border police “clashed” with the Japanese journalists who had arrived in the Muslim-majority Xinjiang region after an alleged terrorist attack Monday left 16 police dead, Xinhua news agency said.

“The local foreign affairs department made an apology Tuesday to two Japanese reporters,” Xinhua said.

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A photographer for the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper was forcibly detained late Monday and kicked by police in the city of Kashgar, his employer said.

A reporter for the Nippon Television Network was also detained and treated roughly by Chinese police who pushed his face to the ground, the network said.

“We are planning to make a strong protest,” Japanese government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Kashgar police also entered an AFP photographer’s hotel room and forced him to delete photos he had taken of the scene of the attack.

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