VIDEO: Reporter Shoved and Harassed by Chinese Security at Olympic Games
With the entire world now peering in the direction of Beijing, there are going to be some very uncomfortable conversations occurring within the international community.
Already dubbed “The Genocide Olympics”, Beijing’s 2022 winter games have been mired in controversy since long before the first plane of athletes or journalists landed. This is an international celebration of sport that is occurring within the shadow of a modern day humanitarian catastrophe, and under the control of an authoritarian government who will stop at nothing to maintain appearances.
As such, there have been very public fears that anyone in-country who chooses to speak out regarding the ongoing Chinese genocide of the Uyghur Muslim population could find themselves detained, disappeared, or worse.
In a jarring example of this tyrannical brutality, a Dutch reporter entrenched in Beijing was seen being harassed and manhandled by Chinese authorities, live on the air.
The reporter, Sjoerd den Daas, of NOS Nieuws (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, a member of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system) is seen in the clip being shoved and herded away from his camera by a Chinese security agent in a black jacket and red armband.
It is still unknown exactly what rule the reporter broke, and he was not detained, but the outrageous clip is evidence that the Red Chinese will brook no freedom of the press during the genocide games.
In its Tweet of the video clip, NOS wrote: “Our correspondent [den Daas] was pulled away from the camera by security guards at 12:00 pm live in the NOS Journal. Unfortunately, this is increasingly becoming a daily reality for journalists in China. He is fine and was able to finish his story a few minutes later.”
Advertisement - story continues belowBy some reports, the Chinese security guard is heard saying in Mandarin, “hurry up, step quickly,” as the Dutch reporter says, “I’m allowed to be here.”
NOS editor-in-chief Marcel Gelauff said the incident was “a painful illustration” of how the foreign press is treated in Red China. “Sjoerd has often told and shown that it is difficult as a journalist in China. There is a far-reaching tendency to curtail freedoms, and this may be even stronger because of corona,” Gelauff added, according to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, via Yahoo News.
The video was stunning.
Onze correspondent @sjoerddendaas werd om 12.00u live in het NOS Journaal door beveiligers voor de camera weggetrokken. Helaas is dit steeds vaker de dagelijkse realiteit voor journalisten in China. Hij is in orde en kon zijn verhaal gelukkig een paar minuten later afmaken pic.twitter.com/GLTZRlZV96
— NOS (@NOS) February 4, 2022
With the opening ceremonies just now having finished, we can only imagine that there will be plenty more where this came from in the coming days.
