China cancels EU press briefing over reporters

CHINESE premier Wen Jiabao pulled out of a press conference with the EU following a summit between the two during the week because of objections to some journalists present, according to EU officials.

Officially the reason given by both the Chinese and the EU was that the summit ran over time and they did not have enough time for the scheduled joint press conference.

But four Chinese journalists working for independent media, whom the Chinese authorities consider to be dissident, were at first refused entry to the EU council building where the press conference was to take place.

The four – from the Chinese versions of The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television – had been accredited to attend and some are permanently based in Brussels and accredited by the EU institutions. One of them, Lixin Yang, who works for the New York-based Epoch Times, said they were told there was a security problem.

Afterwards they were cleared by Council and allowed to enter the building. “The Chinese cancelled the press conference as a result, which we regret but we are grateful to the Council for allowing us in,” said Yang.

EU sources said that negotiations went on with the Chinese for some time but when the decision was made to allow in the journalists in question, the Chinese pulled out of the press conference.

“They feared that these journalists would ask the Prime Minister questions he was not willing to answer. There was little we could do, we were facing a significant diplomatic incident,” said one source.

Lorenzo Consoli, president of API, the organisation representing foreign journalists in Brussels, said: “The EU should never allow authoritarian regimes to dictate policy on media freedom.”