China protests: BBC reporter arrested during broadcast

Chinese police beat a BBC reporter in Shanghai and briefly arrested him for covering the protests sweeping the country against the government-imposed COVID-19 lockdown.

Ed Lawrence was held for several hours at the city’s main protest on Sunday, 27/11, before being released.

The BBC said in a statement: “It is very worrying that one of our journalists is attacked in this way while doing his job.

The Chinese government said it did not provide Lawrence’s press credentials.

He was filming crowds at the country’s largest protest on Wulumuqi Middle Road in Shanghai on Sunday. Footage widely shared on social media shows several officers catching Lawrence and pinning him to the ground.

Lawrence was beaten and kicked by officers and then taken away in handcuffs.

The BBC described the arrest of its journalist as “extremely worrying”.

The British broadcaster said in a statement that it did not receive an official statement or apology from China, “except for his claim that the authorities who later released him were holding him for his own good as he was at risk of catching Covid in the crowd.”

“We don’t see this as a credible explanation.”

A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not mention the police brutality and the arrest of an accredited foreign journalist in an interview with reporters Monday, 11/28.

“According to what we learned from the relevant authorities in Shanghai, he did not identify himself as a journalist and did not voluntarily provide his press credentials,” spokesman Zhao Lijian said.

Protests against the Chinese government and its anti-COVID policies erupted in many cities after 10 people were killed in a deadly forest fire in western Xinjiang last week.

Many believe that an apartment tower fire in the city of Urumqi has not escaped residents due to restrictions.

Local authorities disputed the charges.

Public anger over the tragedy, the latest in a series of disasters blamed on anti-Covid measures, has turned into street protests in many cities in China.

In some, demonstrators called for the resignation of Chinese President Xi Jinping to be an unprecedented challenge to the authority of the Communist Party.

• Protests in China against strictness of covid measures calling for Xi Jinping’s resignation

The Chinese government did not acknowledge or formally respond to the protests. But news of the demonstrations quickly spread on Chinese social media despite heavy censorship.

The UK government condemned the arrest of Ed Lawrence by Chinese police, and a minister said it was “unacceptable” and “worrying”.

“Whatever happens, freedom of the press must be sacred,” Business Secretary Grant Schapps told LBC radio.

– This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-63782008.