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 The issue of media freedom for foreign reporters in China has
attracted high-level concern in the United States, especially over
worries that the government is denying visas for organizations that
carry negative stories about China.
Last month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden expressed concern, while
on a visit to Beijing, over China's efforts to restrict the
activities of foreign news organizations.
Neither the New York Times Co nor Bloomberg News has been given new
journalist visas for more than a year after they published stories
about the wealth of family members of former Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao and current President Xi Jinping, respectively.
The New York Times applied for a journalist accreditation in China
for U.S. national Austin Ramzy in the middle of last year, after he
left Time magazine.
Ramzy remained in the country on the visa that he had received while
working for Time, which was valid until the end of 2013. Chinese
authorities then issued him a 30-day visa, valid until January 30,
ostensibly to give him enough time to prepare to leave the country.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Ramzy informed them in May
that he was no longer working for Time magazine and he handed back
his government-issued press card, which foreign reporters are
required to have to report legally in the country.
"But Austin Ramzy did not, in accordance with Chinese regulations,
apply to other Chinese departments to change his visa type and his
residence permit type, which previously was for Time," Qin told a
daily news briefing.
"Regretfully, Austin Ramzy did not do this, and he continued to use
his existing residence permit to come and go from China. So his
actions were in contravention of China's rules," he added.
Residence permits in China are contingent upon employment, and
foreign nationals are supposed to leave the country when they no
longer work for the organization which sponsored their residence
permit, or else convert to another visa type.
Ramzy declined to comment when reached by Reuters, and the New York
Times did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
"The NY Times, following rules, handed Foreign Ministry a visa
application for Austin Ramzy last June. They have not approved it,"
Edward Wong, acting Beijing bureau chief for the Times, said on
Twitter.
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Qin said that both the New York Times and Ramzy had admitted to the
Foreign Ministry to contravening China's rules, and that the
ministry had granted Ramzy a visa valid until the end of January to
give him time to sort out personal affairs.
Qin added that the Foreign Ministry was currently handling the New
York Times' request for accreditation for Ramzy, but that it would
not be completed before January 31, implying that he would have to
leave when his visa expires on January 30.
If that happens, Ramzy's case will be the second time in 13 months
that a New York Times reporter has had to leave China. Chris
Buckley, a former Reuters journalist, had to leave Beijing in
December 2012 after the government did not approve his accreditation
for the New York Times.
Buckley has not yet received approval to return to China as a
resident journalist. He works from Hong Kong.
The newspaper has another outstanding China visa application, for
Philip Pan, its Beijing bureau chief in waiting.
Asked whether China would grant journalist visas to either Buckley
or Pan, Qin said it was China's sovereign right to decide to whom it
granted journalist accreditations and visas.
Foreign reporters working in China face numerous difficulties,
including interference, or even violence, when covering sensitive
issues such as protests and dissidents' trials. China says foreign
media are granted wide-ranging freedoms.
In November, the Chinese government rejected a visa application by
Paul Mooney, an American journalist to whom Thomson Reuters had
extended an offer to work in China. The government gave no reason
for the rejection.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Sui-Lee Wee;
editing by Neil Fullick)
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