His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People’s Republic of China
Beijing, People’s Republic of China

21 March 2008

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to protest against the crackdown on coverage of events in Tibet and the banning of foreign media, in violation of international agreements and of your own country’s Olympic promises.

Since 12 March authorities have refused to grant foreign correspondents permits to enter Tibet and at least 25 journalists, including 15 from Hong Kong, have reportedly been expelled from Tibet or provinces in which there are significant Tibetan minorities. Several were accused of ‘illegal reporting’ before being forcibly taken to the airport in Lhasa and put on a flight to Chengdu. The few foreign journalists who remain are unable to move around normally because of the tight control exercised by the police and army.

More than 40 serious violations of the rights of foreign journalists have been reported since 10 March in Tibet and across China. Journalists have been prevented from working freely in the Lhasa, Beijing, Chengdu and Xining, as well as in other cities in the provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai.

Among the incidents was the arrest of a Finnish TV crew on 17 March in Xiahe in Gansu province, where there had been Tibetan demonstrations against the Chinese government. The TV crew was threatened and its video recordings were confiscated. The previous day, police in Xiahe forced journalists working for British television channel ITV to leave the city, while officers in Chengdu prevented journalists working for US television network ABC from filming in a Tibetan district. Other reporters have been turned back at checkpoints and followed by unmarked cars.

In Tibet, Internet café owners have been ordered to prevent all "state secrets", including photographs and videos, from being sent abroad. Chinese video-sharing platforms have had all news of the violent events deleted.

Foreign-based radio Tibetan-language radio programmes have systematically been jammed, including those by Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and Voice of Tibet. The video-sharing website Youtube has been censored in Tibet since 16 March after footage was posted of demonstrations in the streets of Lhasa. The BBC, CNN and Yahoo News websites have been regularly inaccessible since the unrest began.

TV broadcasts within China of CNN and BBC have been cut by the authorities on several occasions during showing of footage of events in Tibet, while official television has been showing only film of Tibetans attacking Chinese businesses, without referring to Tibetan casualties and the army deployment.

We respectfully remind you that the Organising Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games guaranteed in 2001 that foreign media would have “complete freedom to report when they come to China.” Furthermore, the Committee’s “Beijing Olympic Action Plan” of 2002 promises: “In the preparation for the Games, we will be open in every aspect to the rest of the country and the whole world. We will draw on the successful experience of others and follow the international standards and criteria.”

We respectfully remind you that the Chinese government introduced new regulations in 2007 to allow greater freedom of movement and access for foreign journalists who wished to travel in the country. Yet these regulations have never been fully respected.

In accordance with these pledges and numerous international conventions, declarations and agreements - including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - we call upon the Chinese authorities to end their censorship of the disturbances in Tibet and stop violating the right of all people to access information.

We respectfully call on you to end censorship in Tibet and to respect the right of domestic and foreign media to gather and disseminate information. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 11 regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.