BBC reporters attacked by mob in China, forced to ‘confess’ to police

A crew of BBC reporters in China was attacked by a mob and later forced to sign a police confession for attempting an “illegal interview”, the British broadcaster said on Friday.

The journalists were trying to reach a woman in Xinhua county in southern Hunan province, who claims her father was killed during a land dispute, when a group of men confronted them on Sunday, in an incident later condemned by China’s foreign correspondents’ association.

“As soon as we arrived in Yang Linghua’s village it was clear they were expecting us,” correspondent John Sudworth wrote in an online article, referring to their intended interview subject.

“The road to her house was blocked by a large group of people and, within a few minutes, they’d assaulted us and smashed all of our cameras,” Sudworth wrote.

Later, police and local government officials forced them to delete video footage “under the threat of further violence” and sign a confession apologising for “behaviour causing a bad impact”, according to the article.

The attack was an apparent effort to stop coverage of Yang’s story ahead of major annual political meetings of the ruling Communist Party, that kicked off in Beijing on Friday.