China denies alleged attack on foreign journalists
2008-12-03

Category Protest Nations China States Henan Category Regions Metropolitan Beijing Profession Journalists Category AIDS Source (AP)

BEIJING - Local Chinese officials on Wednesday denied allegations by a Belgian television crew that they had been attacked while trying to report on the HIV epidemic in a hard-hit rural village, state media said.

The alleged Nov. 27 attack in China's central Henan province came just a month after the government announced that relaxed reporting regulations for foreign media during the Olympics would become permanent.

Journalists are now supposed to be able to travel and report freely in most areas of China, but certain topics remain touchy, especially with local officials.

An initial investigation by Henan officials found that the journalists "were not attacked but were only jostled," the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing comments by Wang Yuejin, a spokesman with Henan's foreign affairs bureau.

"As far as we know, there was no violence," Wang was quoted as saying. He added that the journalists' tapes and memory cards were taken away by AIDS patients upset that the reporting might reflect badly on them.

According to the journalists' account, assailants pulled members of the crew from their vehicle, beat them and took their notes, money and other equipment.

"We thought they were going to kill us, they were acting like animals who lost control, it was a complete chaos, we were crying," said Tom Van de Weghe, a reporter with Flemish public broadcaster VRT who was allegedly targeted along with a a colleague and an assistant.

Van de Weghe said he was hit twice on the head and that villagers identified the attackers as men who worked for the local officials.

Henan has been highly sensitive to the AIDS issue since the virus that causes the disease spread widely there in the 1990s through unhygienic blood-buying rings, which allegedly operated with official protection. Officials there have been accused in the past of abusing AIDS victims and advocates.

The incident has drawn protests from the International Federation of Journalists and from Belgian authorities.

The journalists couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

VRT has said it is asking for compensation for damaged equipment, an apology to the journalists and a guarantee that the journalists will be able to work safely.