ESWN has translated a firsthand account of the journalists who were beaten while reporting on the collapse of the bridge in Hunan (original Chinese here). Five reporters from five papers had gone to a hostel where family members of victims of the collapse were gathering:
There was nobody at the reception. The local government required that only reporters with press permits be allowed at the scene of the accident and the scene of the medical treatment, but no press permit was required at the hostel. The reporters felt that their news gathering was legal. At around 11:30am, a middle-aged man with glasses and red-clothes came in to ask us to show our work permits. At the time, he did not identify himself and we obviously refused. About 10 minutes later, the man brought in a group of seven or eight people including 3 women. He demanded aggressively for us to show our work permits. So Wang Weijian said that he was from People’s Daily and he asked the other party to show his work permit. But they did not show their work permits. They only said that they were workers. They wanted us to leave. We said that we were tourists and we have the right to be there. The men in red clothes said, “If you are tourists, you better leave!” At the time, Wang Weijian was sitting with his back to the door. Someone shoved him hard in the head, and then repeated that. It was a man wearing white and about 1.75 meters tall (I felt that he was an enformer). He came up and tried to grab Wang Weijian’s wrist. When he did not succeed, he went and shoved Wang a few times. [Full text]
