September 4th 2014
Xinjiang, Yarkent
The reporter working for the Los Angeles Times was “shadowed” by 2 black-clad officers who appeared in the restaurant she was having lunch in just moments after arriving in town. They made no effort to be inconspicuous. They followed the correspondent and her assistant and driver and guide from the restaurant to the local mosque, market, shopping centre and hotel. They told her they were there “for her safety.” They had apparently been tipped off to the journalists’ presence ahead of time because one of the officers acknowledged immediately that he knew she was a journalist even though she had not checked into a hotel in that area or shown her passport to anyone in that vicinity. The internet- and text messaging services were completely shut off in this area.