China rolls back press freedoms amid protest calls

BEIJING (AP) – China appears to be rolling back some press freedoms, barring foreign journalists from working near a popular Shanghai park and along a major Beijing shopping street after calls for weekly protests in those spots appeared online.

The new restrictions put the popular leisure spots on a par with Tibet as out-of-bounds areas where foreign reporters need special permission to work, and come after journalists were attacked and harassed while working in the areas over the weekend.

Bob Dietz, the Asia coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the treatment of journalists in Beijing on Sunday was “the worst aggression against the foreign press we’ve seen since the Olympics in 2008.”

“Such a heavy-handed response discredits the ruling Chinese Communist Party and highlights their fear of popular opposition,” Dietz said in a statement.