Arrested in China during protests against the zero cases policy, a BBC journalist. According to the representative of the British Media, the reporter was “beaten” by police officers while he was working, being an accredited journalist.
“The BBC is very concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai. He was held for several hours before being released. During the arrest he was beaten and kicked,” a spokesman for the group said in a statement sent to AFP.
The spokesman emphasized that the BBC has received “no formal explanation or apology by the Chinese authorities, other than a statement by public officials; who released him that him arrested for his own good, so that he would not be infected (by SARS-CoV-2) in the midst of the crowd. We don’t think this is a credible explanation.”
There is no justification for police beating journalists covering protests, British Business Secretary Grant Shapps said today.
Hundreds of people demonstrated over the weekend in China, particularly in major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, to protest the lockdown and the restrictive measures imposed by the authorities in the context of the fight against the coronavirus epidemic.
“There can be absolutely no justification for police beating journalists who are simply covering the protests. I know this is a major concern,” Sapps told Sky News.
China’s Foreign Ministry said today that the BBC journalist who was beaten and arrested by the police had not declared his status as a journalist.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said he had noted the BBC’s statement about the incident, but insisted it did not reflect what happened.
Source: News Beast
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