Foreign journalists in China continue to complain about difficult working conditions despite the easing of restrictions following the coronavirus pandemic, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) has found.
Although 81% of FCCC members said that conditions had improved somewhat in 2023 compared to the time of the pandemic, reporters said the return to mobility meant they had the same issues with independent reporting on the ground they had pre-pandemic, according to the report published in Beijing on Monday.
None of the respondents said reporting conditions surpassed pre-pandemic conditions, while nearly all them, 99%, said reporting conditions in China rarely or never met international reporting standards.
The annual survey, taken by 101 out of 157 FCCC members, showed that intimidation and surveillance are still major obstacles to reporting in the country, with 81% of respondents saying they experienced harassment or violence.
As in previous year, just over half of respondents said that police or public officials had obstructed their work at least once.
Additionally, according to the FCCC more regions in China now appear to be politically sensitive. Authorities also used drones to monitor media professionals, as the survey showed for the first time.
"During the pandemic, the situation in the field was ghastly," said David Rennie, Beijing Bureau Chief of The Economist. "Now the situation is much more random. It is harder to predict when you'll be followed or when unsupervised reporting trips will be cut short by the local propaganda department."
