Expelled French reporter says China trying to ‘muzzle’ media

A French reporter about to be thrown out of China after being accused of supporting terrorism said on Monday the Chinese authorities were trying to “muzzle the international press”.

“This is not about me, this is about a very violent attempt to muzzle the international press,” said Ursula Gauthier, the China correspondent for France’s L’Obs news magazine.

“I’m not the target here. It’s very important that we don’t let China fall back into ways that we thought had gone forever and which bring to mind the Cultural Revolution,” she told France Inter radio. 

Beijing refused to renew Gauthier’s visa after she published an article criticising the government’s policies in Xinjiang, home to a mostly Muslim Uighur minority and a region where violent incidents are common.

The foreign ministry said last week a report she did for L’Obs “flagrantly championed acts of terrorism and acts of cruelly killing innocents”.

In her story Gauthier suggested that violence by Uighurs against civilians might, in part, be driven by resentment of the government’s policies.