The forced departure of a New York Times correspondent from mainland China on December 31, after authorities failed to issue him a visa, led the newspaper to publicly call on Beijing to issue the journalist a visa, as well as to issue long-delayed press credentials to its new Beijing bureau chief.
Chris Buckley, a 45-year-old Australian who has worked as a journalist in China since 2000, left Beijing with his partner and their daughter for Hong Kong on Monday, The Times reported.
The Times' Beijing bureau chief, Philip P. Pan, has been awaiting credentials since March. Normally both the visa and the credential process takes weeks or months.
Beijing's failure to provide Mr. Buckley a visa in time for the year-end deadline raised worries that Chinese authorities were continuing a cold war against news organizations that had published re ports that displeased Community Party leaders.
As our colleague Mark McDonald reported last week in his article on tightening Web censorship in China, since the day The Times published a investigation into the riches of the family of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao both its English-language Web site and its Chinese-language site have been blocked in China.
“The visa troubles come amid government pressure on the foreign news media over investigations into the finances of senior Chinese leaders, a delicate subject. Corruption is widely reported in China, but top leaders are considered off limits,†The Times reported.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Mr. Buckley had been “expelled†from China, but in an interview with the South China Post as he landed in Hong Kong, Mr. Buckley said he did not use that word.
Many companies, not just news organizations but also technology giants like Google, have faced the challenge of how to work in China without getting on the wrong side of Chinese authorities.
Do you think the actions against the journalists are retaliation for reporting Chinese authorities found unpalatable? What options do Western media have to cover China accurately?
