(PEN Canada/IFEX) – The following is a 14 January 2005 PEN Canada press release: PEN Canada Criticizes Decision of Chinese Government to Withdraw Visas to Two Reporters to Travel During Visit of Canadian Prime Minister Toronto, January 14 – PEN Canada has criticized the decision of the Chinese government to withdraw visas to two Chinese-language […]
(PEN Canada/IFEX) – The following is a 14 January 2005 PEN Canada press release:
PEN Canada Criticizes Decision of Chinese Government to Withdraw Visas to Two Reporters to Travel During Visit of Canadian Prime Minister
Toronto, January 14 – PEN Canada has criticized the decision of the Chinese government to withdraw visas to two Chinese-language television correspondents who were planning to accompany Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin during his visit to China next week.
Danielle Zhu and David Ren of the New Tang Dynasty (NTDTV) satellite television network learned yesterday that the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa suddenly revoked the visas that had originally been granted to them on January 12. Calls by NTDTV to the Embassy to find out the reasons for the move went unanswered.
“We believe that this action infringes upon the reporters’ and NTDTV’s right to report freely,” PEN Canada President Haroon Siddiqui wrote in a letter today to Chinese Ambassador Mei Ping. Siddiqui reminded the Ambassador of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the “Freedom . . . to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” and called for the re-instatement of the correspondents’ visas.
According to NTDTV Canada president Joe Wang, the network is hopeful that Zhu and Ren will obtain their visas in time for Prime Minister Martin’s arrival in China on January 20. Wang added that the Prime Minister’s Office was trying different approaches to get Chinese authorities to reconsider the decision.
NTDTV is an independent, general-interest television network headquartered in New York City that reports on a range of social, political and cultural affairs in China and Chinese communities around the world. Because NTDTV also reports regularly on human rights violations in China, the government in Beijing has attempted, unsuccessfully, to block its signal from reaching the mainland.
PEN Canada is part of a coalition of Canada-based human rights organizations that, earlier this week, appealed to Prime Minister Martin to adopt a comprehensive strategy on human rights in China on his visit.
