China expels al-Jazeera reporter as media relations sour

Source: WaPo

By Keith B. Richburg, Updated: Tuesday, May 8, 5:55 AM


BEIJING — China has expelled an American journalist working for the English-language arm of al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite television network whose broadcasts shattered the information monopolies of authoritarian Arab governments and played a pivotal role in the “Arab Spring” uprisings that began early last year.

In a statement issued by the station’s Qatar headquarters, al-Jazeera said it “has had to close” its English language bureau in Beijing after Chinese authorities refused to renew the visa and press credentials of correspondent Melissa Chan. The expulsion does not affect the network’s separate Arabic-language bureau.

Chan, a 31-year-old from California, had reported from Beijing for al-Jazeera since 2007. She left Beijing Monday on a flight to Los Angeles.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, or FCCC, protested the expulsion, describing it as “the most extreme example of a recent pattern of using journalist visas in an attempt to censor and intimidate foreign correspondents.” An FCCC statement said “foreign news organizations, not the Chinese government, have the right to choose who works for them in China, in line with international standards.”


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