BBC correspondent leaves China with family amid legal threats, intense pressure: Report
Apr 02, 2021
Taipei [Taiwan], April 2 : A correspondent for the British Broadcasting Agency (BBC) has left Beijing after facing intense pressure and being threatened over British public broadcaster's coverage of issues like Xinjiang and COVID-19.
John Sudworth, who was based in China for nine years, had left Beijing along with his wife, Yvonne Murray, a reporter for the Irish public broadcaster RTE, and their three young children.
Both Sudworth and Murray have said they will continue to cover China from Taipei.
According to The New York Times, the correspondent, Sudworth said on Wednesday that he made the decision after being subjected to intensifying propaganda campaign targeting him and the BBC.
He also cited legal threats as well as the increasing difficulty of doing independent reporting in China without obstruction or harassment.
Taiwan has confirmed Sudworth's presence in Taiwan.
"Sudworth is now in Taiwan and is currently in quarantine in accordance with COVID-19 prevention measures," said Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou during a regular press briefing.
The departures of Sudworth and Murray are part of a larger recent exodus of foreign journalists from China. Last year, the Chinese government expelled around 15 correspondents for American news organizations, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
Murray said in an interview with RTE's "News At One" program on Wednesday that the family had left in a hurry last week and those plainclothes police officers had followed them from their home to the airport.
According to The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC), 2020 saw the largest expulsion of foreign journalists since the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
At least 18 journalists were forced to leave, hurried out and their visas were cancelled over national security concerns.
A US media correspondent was reported having to "take three COVID tests over five days" as she attempted to report from Xinjiang, where Chinese state media has routinely claimed the Muslim-minority Uighurs are prospering, not being detained.
The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) of China had barred the broadcasting of BBC World News on the mainland last month, claiming that it has done a "slew of falsified" reporting on issues such as human rights violations in Xinjiang based on interviews of victims surviving "re-education camps."
