"Our hand has been forced": CBC shutting down China bureau after 42 years
CBC will be closing its bureau in China after journalists’ visa applications were rejected despite numerous requests.
“Our French-language service, Radio-Canada Info, applied for a visa for its then-new China correspondent, Philippe Leblanc, in October 2020,” writes Editor-in-Chief Brodie Fenlon in a blog post. “Despite numerous exchanges with the Chinese consulate in Montreal and requests for meetings over the last two years, there is still no visa.”
A representative told Daily Hive in an email that CBC first opened its office in China in 1980.
Leblanc is now based in Taiwan. Beijing correspondent Saša Petricic tweeted that reporting in Beijing was “increasingly difficult” due to official roadblocks.
Sadly, CBC closing its China bureau after 40+ yrs in Beijing. In the 5 yrs I was there, official roadblocks made it increasingly difficult to report, and Beijing unresponsive in granting new visas to CBC. Still, being there remains best way to tell China story. Hope we’ll return pic.twitter.com/lO0fUc1ZHz
— Saša Petricic (@sasapetricic) November 2, 2022
After covering the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on China, CBC returned for the 2022 Winter Olympics; however, journalists faced several restrictions.
“Our news team cannot move about as freely as they have at other Olympics,” wrote Fenlon in an editor’s note back in January 2022. “They can’t seek out stories outside of the Olympic bubble. And their efforts to gather information will be monitored and possibly compromised.”
China isn’t the only country that the CBC has been forced to exit.
In May, CBC journalists in Russia were stripped of their visas and accreditation. According to Fenlon, the Russian Embassy in Canada said that the move was in response to Canada’s ban on RT, the Russian state-controlled television station.
China’s refusal to issue journalists visas is no different.
“While there was no dramatic expulsion or pointed public statements, the effect is the same,” Fenlon wrote. “We can’t get visas for our journalists to work there as permanent correspondents.”
Fenlon said that although they hope to return to both countries someday, the CBC will be setting up a bureau in India and they’re looking to set up offices in other countries.
“We believe everyone benefits from having more independent journalists — not fewer — on the ground and in key parts of the world,” he stated.
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