Police in Beijing roughed up and detained a British journalist after he covered a Free Tibet protest close to the city’s main Olympic zone. John Ray of Independent Television News said he was pinned down by police, dragged along the floor and pushed into a police van. The authorities also confiscated his equipment, pulled off his shoes, filmed him and accused him of trying to unfurl a Tibetan flag, he said. He denies the accusation, saying he was only trying to cover the protest.
“The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China is appalled by the detention and rough treatment of John Ray, an accredited journalist,less than a kilometer from the main Olympic stadium. We call on the authorities to return his equipment, apologise, and investigate potential illegal action or abuse of authority by police,” said Jonathan Watts, president of the FCCC.