On April 4, 2023, Chinese authorities told one Indian journalist and a representative from an Indian media group not to return to the country from abroad, according to multiple news reports and two people familiar with the situation who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity.
Chinese authorities told Ananth Krishnan, a Beijing-based correspondent for the Indian English-language newspaper The Hindu, and Anshuman Mishra, an officer with the government-run Indian Information Service and the Beijing-based representative of the Indian state broadcaster Prasar Bharati, that their visas were “frozen,” according to those reports.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, said during an April 6 press conference that “as far as I know,” there had been no changes to Krishnan and Mishra’s visas.
However, she also said that Chinese authorities had “no choice” but to take “appropriate countermeasures” to India’s alleged unfair treatment of Chinese journalists.
Mao said that Indian authorities had refused to review and approve Chinese journalists’ applications for stationing in India since 2020, and had expelled Chinese journalists from state broadcaster CGTN in 2021 and the state-run news agency Xinhua in March 2023.
CPJ’s emails to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Indian Foreign Ministry, and Indian Ministry of External Affairs did not receive any responses.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.