BBC calls on Chinese government to stop attacks on foreign journalists

The BBC urged the Chinese government on Tuesday to protect journalists after members of the Chinese Communist Party asked the public to report the locations of a BBC News crew on social media.

A BBC statement read: “Over the weekend a social media post by a part of the Chinese Communist Party called on citizens to post comments on the whereabouts of a BBC team covering the floods in Henan province.

“The public comments below the post included death threats against our team. Journalists from other media organizations reporting in Henan were subsequently confronted by an angry crowd looking for the BBC team.

“There must be immediate action by the Chinese government to stop these attacks which continue to endanger foreign journalists,” the statement added.

This comes after several foreign journalists in China were harassed online and by local residents, and staff from the BBC, Los Angeles Times, and Deutsche Welle received death threats for covering the floods in Henan.

The harassment appears to have specifically targeted BBC Shanghai reporter Robin Brant following his report on the 12 deaths in a subway station in Zengzhou that were caused by the flooding.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China warned of the increased harassment and stated that: “In one particularly alarming incident, Henan’s Communist Youth League asked its 1.6 million followers on Chinese social media site Weibo to report the whereabouts of BBC Shanghai reporter Robin Brant, after he became the target of viral online harassment.”