Another row between India and China? MEA urges Beijing to facilitate journalists after recent expulsions

New Delhi, June 3: India has called on China to "facilitate the continued presence of Indian journalists working and reporting from China" in the wake of Beijing revoking the credentials of three Indian reporters since April.

 

New Delhi also said that “all foreign journalists, including Chinese journalists have been pursuing journalistic activities in India without any limitations or difficulties in reporting or doing media coverage", a day after Beijing said that the number of its reporters in India was "about to drop to zero".

  

 

India said on Friday it hoped China would allow Indian journalists to continue to work in that country, saying all foreign journalists, including those from China, are allowed to operate freely in the country.

The external affairs ministry's statement came two days after China said it had taken "appropriate" action in response to India's treatment of Chinese journalists.

"All foreign journalists, including Chinese journalists, have been pursuing journalistic activities in India without any limitations or difficulties in reporting or doing media coverage," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. He, however, also said that there should be no deviations from "normal journalistic behaviour and activities, or from the provisions governing Journalist visas".

 

"Meanwhile, Indian journalists in China have been operating with certain difficulties, such as not being permitted to hire locals as correspondents or journalists," Bagchi said.

 

They also faced restrictions while getting access and travelling locally, Bagchi said.

 

"We hope that Chinese authorities facilitate the continued presence of Indian journalists working and reporting from China," he said.

 

 

The relations between two countries have nosedived since the Galwan Valley clash in Eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control in 2020.

 

The current friction over journalists began in April after two Indian journalists posted in Beijing were barred from returning to their jobs in the Chinese capital from India.

 

At that time, China had said the action was a "corresponding counter measure" to India's treatment of Chinese journalists. The friction resurfaced this week after China refused to renew the visa of one of the two remaining Indian journalists in China.

 

China said this was in response to India declining to renew the visas of the last two Chinese state media journalists in India this month.