Mayumi Otani, correspondent for Japan’s Mainichi Newspaper, was assaulted in Shanghai on March 27 while covering a demonstration in a neighborhood that was being demolished for the 2010 World Expo.
Three men hit her while she was photographing a protestor who was being forced into a government car. Otani stumbled and fell into the bushes.
When she protested to a government official who was at the site, he replied that the local workers were ill-mannered. A demonstrator told her the three men had been hired by the government or the construction company to ensure that the project went smoothly.