BuzzFeed’s Beijing bureau chief forced to leave China
DHARAMSALA, August, 23: China has declined the renewal of an Indian-American journalist’s visa and forced her to leave China according to various media reports.
BuzzFeed’s Beijing bureau chief, Megha Rajagopalan is now being forced to leave China after the renewal of her journalist visa was denied by Chinese authorities, reports the Shanghaiist.
“It is bittersweet to leave Beijing after spending six wonderful and eye-opening years as a journalist there. In May, China’s Foreign Ministry declined to issue me a new journalist visa. They say this is a process thing, we are not totally clear why,” the Indian-American journalist said in a tweet.
Though China’s Foreign Ministry stopped short of explaining its decision, Rajagopalan is known for her reporting on Uyghur, and off late, she has earned a reputation for being one of the boldest foreign journalists with her reports on the mass internment camps in Uyghur which brought light to the repression of Uyghurs by the Chinese regime.
Rajagopalan hit back at the communist regime and said that it will neither stop her nor silence her.
“I also want to make clear that though I can’t do it from inside China anymore, I’m not going to stop reporting on and speaking about state surveillance, repression and incarceration of millions of Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang,” Rajagopalan said in another tweet.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) has condemned China’s decision to deny her a visa. “We are attempting to get clarity from the foreign ministry on its reasoning for effectively ejecting a credentialed foreign journalist,” the Guardian quoted FCCC as saying in a statement.
Beijing has often delayed visas or refused to renew visas for journalists or media outlets that have angered the communist regime with their coverage. She became the sixth foreign correspondents who have been expelled from China or had unexplained visa denials since 2012. Rajagopalan received an outpouring of support from fellow China watchers and reporters.
