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Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, on Friday, said that all foreign journalists, including Chinese have been doing their work in India without any restrictions or difficulties and hoped that Chinese side facilitates Indian journalists.
Answering a query on China expelling Indian Journalists during the briefing, Bagchi said, "All foreign journalists, including Chinese journalists have been pursuing journalistic activities in India without any limitations or difficulties in reporting or doing media coverage." "Meanwhile, Indian journalists in China have been operating with certain difficulties, such as not being permitted to hire locals as correspondents or journalists. As you know, foreign media can and do freely hire local journalists to work for their bureaus in India. In addition, Indian journalists also face several restrictions while getting access and travelling locally," he added. Recently, China has expelled some of India's journalists in recent weeks, through non-renewal of visas, Wall Street Journal reported. He further stated that Indian side supported and facilitated foreign journalists in India. At the same time, there should be no deviations from normal journalistic behaviour and activities, or from the provisions governing Journalist visas. "We hope that Chinese authorities facilitate the continued presence of Indian journalists working and reporting from China. The two sides continue to remain in touch regarding this issue," he added. Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson claimed that their reporters had been treated unfairly in India for years. "What I can tell you is that for a long time, Chinese journalists have suffered unfair and discriminatory treatment in India, and in 2017, the Indian side shortened the visa validity of Chinese journalists to three months or even one month for no reason," Mao Ning, the spokesperson, said at a briefing, according to the statement released by Chinese Foreign Ministry. Her statement came in response to a question about a report published in The Wall Street Journal with the headline, "China, India kick out nearly all of each other's journalists as rivalry escalates". (ANI)
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