Former China correspondent Helene Chung wasn't allowed to 'mix' with Chinese people and had to read out her news reports to her Sydney colleagues over the phone. She believes the latest diplomatic stoush is yet another challenge the broadcaster will one day overcome.
For Helene Chung, a former ABC China correspondent who covered the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, the forced departure of two Australian journalists this week marked a significant step backwards on the progress made by foreign media in recent decades.The bureau opened two years after Beijing and Canberra established diplomatic tiesThe 75-year-old fourth-generation Chinese-Australian was posted to the Peking bureau — now known as the Beijing bureau — in the summer of 1983.
Ms Chung, who is also the Australian broadcaster's first female foreign correspondent, told numerous stories on the ground for three years, between the post-Mao eraShe returned to Australia in 1986 and was again sent to Beijing to cover the pro-democracy movement at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Weeks before the massacre, she was flown to Hong Kong to report from a safer distance.
The guards were ostensibly there to look after the residents, but everyone knew they were there to 'protect' the Chinese interpreters and other local workers from "Western pollution", including free speech, freedom of assembly, and perhaps pornography.Helene Chung, the first female correspondent in the ABC's history, was reading a news script in the office of China Bureau in Peking in 1985.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Foreign journalists 'turned into pawns' in China amid growing diplomatic spat, experts sayForeign media becomes the latest casualty in what experts and a China foreign correspondent say are President Xi Jinping's efforts to strengthen 'control on Chinese society'.
Read more »
A pioneering China correspondent writes: it's much more risky todayOpinion: The swift and unceremonious exit of two Australian journalists from Beijing shows the situation for foreign correspondents in China to be apparently worse now than it was in the mid-1970s at the tail end of the brutal cultural revolution
Read more »
Australia must 'normalise' relations with China without 'trading away' core values | Sky News AustraliaLiberal Senator Andrew Bragg says it is 'very troubling' to hear Australia no longer has any correspondents in China following the rushed removal of two Australian journalists over fears for their safety.\n\nJournalists Bill Birtles and Michael Smith landed in Sydney yesterday after being evacuated from China by the Department of Foreign Affairs after Chinese authorities demanded they present themselves for questioning in relation to Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist who was detained in Beijing last month. \n\nMr Bragg told Sky News it was a “regrettable” situation but he looked forward “to the normalisation of relations over the medium term”. \n\n“I don’t think it’s a very good look to have effectively expelled Australian journalists,” he said. \n\n“Not only does it deprive us of real media, real intelligence on what’s happening on the ground but it also is a bit of a vote of no confidence in our day-to-day engagement.”\n\nWhen asked whether it would be a good move for Australia to begin expelling Chinese diplomats from the country, Mr Bragg said they would be hard-pressed to find the government “stooping to use those sorts of tactics”. \n\n“We don’t engage in censorship in this country,” he said. \n\n“The reality is, China is an important country to Australia, it will be important to our future and we need to focus on normalising relations over the medium term without trading away any of the values that we hold dear.” \n\nImage: Getty
Read more »
Victorian working permits to be resubmitted ahead of expiration | Sky News AustraliaVictorians holding working permits will need to reapply for their exemptions again as expiry dates loom. \n\nPremier Daniel Andrews revealed on Wednesday permits for employees working on site would not just roll over and employers will be required to resubmit the application. \n\nHe said employers would be able to use the same template for the new permit but would have to alter the dates. \n\n“They need to be contemporary and represent who is working and the circumstances under which they are working so police have the clearest and easiest sense of who should be out and about, who can be out and about after curfew,” Mr Andrews said. \n\n“Therefore they need to be remade.\n\n“We have tried to reduce the administrative burden as much as possible but if those permits are going to be accurate and effective, particularly for the purposes of curfew, they do need to be reissued.”\n\nChildcare permits, however, will not have to be renewed as a date was not issued concurrent with the exemption. \n\nThe Premier also flagged permits for childcare would potentially be unnecessary in a few weeks if Melbourne was to successfully move to the next step, which would see childcare centres allowed to reopen. \n\nThe state recorded 11 new deaths overnight, nine of which were linked to the troubled aged care sector, with 76 new infections. \n\n The Premier thanked regional Victoria for its testing efforts as the caseload outside of metropolitan Melbourne continued to drop, despite reporting seven new cases in the past 24-hour period. \n\nImage: News Corp Australia
Read more »
China says Australian journalist Cheng Lei was arrested on 'national security grounds'Cheng Lei, a presenter for China Global Television Network (CGTN), is suspected of 'criminal activity endangering China's national security'.
Read more »
'Just appalling': End of an era as Australia's last journalists in China forced outThe Chinese government has always tried to shield itself from foreign correspondents, says Peter Ellingsen, China correspondent from 1988 to 1991. 'What has changed is that China has become immensely powerful and Xi Jinping is taking them to the brink.'
Read more »