Police detained a reporter and photographer from Associated Press and told them not to cover protests by parents who lost children in the May 12 earthquake.
Reporter Cara Anna and photographer Ng Han Guan arrived around 9:30 a.m. at the courthouse in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, where parents were protesting shoddy school construction. Police grabbed their arms and pulled them up the stairs of the courthouse. They were taken to the lobby to wait for officials from the local government’s Foreign Affairs Office. The official arrived and lectured the journalists not to cover such protests. The official said people were bound to have different opinions following the quake but the reporters should pay no attention to such things. The journalists were released about half an hour later.