“They filmed my apartment”

May 19, 2013

This is a story from a European broadcast journalist:

“I was working on a story about security devices on and around Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing before the June 4th anniversary. While working on location, police came up to me five times and asked for my documents.
The day after, two male police officers came to my flat, which also serves as my office. They were accompanied by two females in plainclothes. While the police officers asked again for my documents, the two females were busy filming my apartment with their mobile phones. When I asked why they were filming our apartment, they answered it was for internal use and would not be published.
They did not question us about our report on security. They just asked to see our press card, passport and office registration documents. But my understanding is they came to my flat to intimidate us because we were seen shooting the story on security devices the day before.”