A BBC journalist was reportedly kicked and beaten by Chinese police while covering COVID-19 protests in Shanghai.
This comes as hundreds of people took to the streets in China’s major cities on Sunday after 10 people were killed in a fire in Urumqi, which many of the protesters blame on protracted COVID-19 lockdowns.
The BBC’s Ed Lawrence was caught in the chaos when he was violently arrested for covering the biggest uprising there since the Tiananmen Square protests more than 30 years ago.
“The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai,” a spokesperson for the British broadcaster said in a statement on Monday.
“He was held for several hours before being released. During his arrest, he was beaten and kicked by the police. This happened while he was working as an accredited journalist,” the spokesperson continued.
The British government joined in the condemnation, with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly denouncing the Chinese police actions as “deeply disturbing.”
“Media freedom and freedom to protest must be respected. No country is exempt,” Cleverly tweeted. “Journalists must be able to do their job without intimidation.”
However, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the BBC’s statement did not reflect what actually happened and that Lawrence “did not identify himself as a journalist and didn’t voluntarily present his press credentials.”
“According to our understanding, the BBC’s statement is not true. According to authorities in Shanghai the journalist in question did not reveal his journalist identity at the time, he did not openly show his foreign press card,” Zhao said on Monday. “When the incident happened, law enforcement personnel asked people to leave, and when certain people did not cooperate they were taken away from the scene.”
Lawrence has since tweeted on Monday to thank his followers, adding that he believed “at least one local national was arrested after trying to stop the police from beating me.”
The latest demonstrations over Beijing’s outrageous commitment to zero COVID represent the biggest popular revolt since the military crushed the student-led pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and the first of its kind since Chinese President Xi Jinping came into power a decade ago.
