DHARAMSHALA: France 24 reporter Cyril Payen has been harassed and threatened by Chinese diplomatic personnels for his documentary ‘Seven Days in Tibet’, says Reporters Without Borders. His report, entitled “Seven days in Tibet,” was broadcast by France 24 on 30 May and was followed by a live debate.

Cyril Payen got a rare access to enter Tibet in May with a seven day visa. Foreign journalists are usually forbidden to visit Tibet and the Chinese police continue to prevent them from covering demonstrations by Tibetans inside Tibet. He secretly filmed and interviewed Tibetans in the capital Lhasa, which he says is currently under an Orwellian veil of surveillance, like a city under occupation. “What he saw lends weight to the complaints of the Dalai Lama and human rights organisations, who say Tibetan culture is being erased,” France 24 said.

“As Payen was leaving Paris for Bangkok on 3 June, the Chinese embassy in Paris contacted France 24 and asked to meet with him. As he had by then already left, two embassy officials went to France 24 to talk to its CEO, Marc Saikali. For two hours, they accused the station of broadcasting a mendacious report that was “riddled with errors” and demanded its removal from the website. The station refused,” Reporters Without Border said.

On his arrival in Bangkok on 4 June, Payen received threatening calls and text messages from the officials in Chinese embassy there. “The embassy then stepped up its harassment of Payen, who received several anonymous calls and many texts. A message left yesterday by a female member of the embassy’s staff was openly threatening. She gave him an ultimatum to attend a meeting at the embassy by today at the latest to explain why he had “cheated” in order to obtain a Chinese visa. She urged him to stop postponing the meeting and to comply with the embassy request, or else “take the responsibility” of his refusal,” it said.

Reporters without Borders sharply criticised the Chinese government’s irresponsible behaviour, stating that “such unacceptable behaviour might be expected from the mafia but not from senior diplomats.”

“It is acceptable for an embassy to express its disagreement with a report. But it is completely unacceptable for diplomats stationed in France and Thailand to try to intimidate a news outlet into modifying editorial content, to harangue a journalist and to summon him with the intention of interrogating him”.

“Such methods are undoubtedly normal in China, and that is regrettable, but they have no place in a free country. The telephone threats that these diplomats made against a French journalist expose them to the possibility of judicial proceedings.

“We urge the French authorities to summon the representatives of the Chinese embassy in Paris in order to protest against this unacceptable harassment. The French authorities must condemn the Chinese government’s use of such aggressive methods with a French journalist and their violation of his freedom of information.