While covering the ongoing mass anti-Covid restrictions protest across China a British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC) journalist was arrested and handcuffed while covering a protest in Shanghai.
Meanwhile, BBC expressed its concern over the incident that happened with its journalists Ed Lawrence. Lawrence was beaten by the Chinese police and also kicked while he was being arrested.
“The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai. He was held for several hours before being released. During his arrest, he was beaten and kicked by the police. This happened while he was working as an accredited journalist,” BBC said.
While carrying out its official duties an accredited journalist was attacked in this way, BBC said.
“We have had no official explanation or apology from the Chinese authorities, beyond a claim by the officials who later released him that they had arrested him for his own good in case he caught Covid from the crowd. We do not consider this a credible explanation,” the statement added.
According to the media reports, a vast protest has been carried out across China and protesters are chanting “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party,” against zero-Covid policy.
Earlier, in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang province a fire sparked in an apartment block in which 10 people died after which the protest sparked.
Moreover, during the protest, dozens of university campuses, and students joined after which the protest spread across Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Wuhan.
Against zero-Covid students of Tsinghua University, in the capital city of Beijing students gathered on a square.
However, over social media images and videos are circulating in which students are holding up sheets of white paper and shouting: “Democracy and the rule of law! Freedom of expression!”