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A BBC journalist was reportedly overwhelmed, kicked and arrested by police in China whereas masking anti-lockdown protests presently sweeping the nation.
Edward Lawrence, a senior journalist and digicam operator within the BBC’s China bureau, was arrested in Shanghai on Sunday night whereas masking an anti-‘COVID Zero’ protest.
Residents of a few of China’s largest cities, together with Shanghai and Beijing (pictured above), are protesting the authoritarian authorities’s draconian COVID Zero measures, which embrace frequent and extreme lockdowns. Protestors, some carrying flowers and slogans, have additionally expressed displeasure with Chinese language President Xi Jinping himself.
In a collection of tweets earlier than his arrest, Lawrence wrote that he was watching the crowds develop at an anti-lockdown protest in Shanghai. He wrote that he had seen three folks arrested by the police and that the police had approached him to hearken to his dialog whereas he talked to a person who claimed his flowers had been confiscated by the authorities.
It’s unclear when or why Lawrence was then apprehended however two movies circulating appeared to point out snippets of his arrest. In a single, he’s forcibly led away by three males, two of whom are in uniform, whereas shouting to a colleague “Name the consulate now.”
In one other he’s on the ground, surrounded by 5 males, earlier than being led away in handcuffs.
In a press release, a spokesperson for BBC Information stated: “The BBC is extraordinarily involved concerning the remedy of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed whereas masking the protests in Shanghai. He was held for a number of hours earlier than being launched. Throughout his arrest, he was overwhelmed and kicked by the police. This occurred whereas he was working as an accredited journalist.”
“It is rather worrying that one among our journalists was attacked on this means while finishing up his duties. We’ve got had no official clarification or apology from the Chinese language authorities, past a declare by the officers who later launched him that that they had arrested him for his personal good in case he caught Covid from the gang. We don’t take into account this a reputable clarification.”
Lawrence, who seems to have been launched, re-tweeted the assertion on Twitter on Monday including: “I perceive not less than one native nationwide was arrested after making an attempt to cease the police from beating me.”
The protests in China, the size of that are unprecedented, have been reportedly sparked by a catastrophic hearth in an condominium block within the metropolis of Urumqi final week, which killed 10 folks. It’s understood the neighborhood during which the condominium block was located was beneath one of many frequent zero COVID lockdowns, which prevented the inhabitants from escaping.
China’s strict zero COVID coverage has seen the nation’s residents spend nearly three years dwelling beneath among the world’s most stringent anti-COVID measures on the earth, together with lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines.
Final month 20,000 guests have been locked inside Shanghai Disneyland after officers found eight optimistic circumstances of COVID within the metropolis. They have been later launched.
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