Foreign correspondents condemn decision to deny visa to Megha Rajagopalan
China has “effectively ejected” an American journalist from the country, a journalists’ association has said, after she won a reputation for hard-hitting reporting on the country’s troubled western Xinjiang region.
Megha Rajagopalan, a correspondent for BuzzFeed, wrote on Twitter that she would be moving on to another beat after the foreign ministry in Beijing “declined to issue a new visa”.
The decision to deny her a visa was condemned by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC). “We are attempting to get clarity from the foreign ministry on its reasoning for effectively ejecting a credentialed foreign journalist,” it said in a statement.
“We find this extremely regrettable and unacceptable for a government that repeatedly insists it welcomes foreign media to cover the country.”
Rajagopalan, a former board member, had “conducted herself according to the highest journalistic standards while in China”, the organisation said.
China has previously delayed visas, or refused to renew them, for individual correspondents or media outlets that have angered the government with their coverage.
