Statement on police abuse of journalists in Kashgar

We issued this statement from Hong Kong after learning of reports today of the detention and beating of two Japanese reporters, Masami Kawakita, a photographer from the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper’s Tokyo headquarters, and Shinji Katsuta, a reporter for the Nippon Television Network, and the harassment of Reuters reporter, Emma Graham-Harrison, in Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang province:

“This sort of behavior is reprehensible. The hostility of Chinese authorities toward the media has permeated down to grass roots levels. China must address this attitude on the part of police everywhere across the country. Journalists – foreign and Chinese – must not be seen as easy targets for police abuse,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator.