- Sunday, March 02, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
India on Thursday (6) hoped that Chinese authorities would facilitate continued presence of Indian journalists in their country.
Comments made by the spokesperson of India’s ministry of external affairs (MEA), Arindam Bagchi, in Delhi came days after China decided to “freeze” visas of two Indian journalists.
“There are Chinese journalists who have valid Indian visas for pursuing journalistic activities in India. So, from that perspective, we don’t see any limitations or difficulties in reporting or doing media coverage,” Bagchi said.
“As regards to Indian journalists working in China, we would hope that Chinese authorities would facilitate their continued presence and reporting from China,” he added.
The MEA official said India is in touch with China on the issue.
“We are in touch with Chinese authorities in this regard. I do not want to get into individual cases or individual information,” he said.
Asked about the number of Chinese journalists operating in India, Bagchi said it is better to ask the Chinese side.
“Because I would not know their exact position — whether they are here or they have gone back to China or somewhere else. But certainly there are a number of Chinese journalists who have valid Indian visas,” he said.
“If there are individual cases and issues, I am sure there are mechanisms to discuss,” he added.
Meanwhile, China has sought reciprocal measures from India for the facilitation of its journalists even as it defended its recent move to freeze the visas of the two Indian correspondents.
China’s foreign ministry officials on Tuesday (4) informed Ananth Krishnan, the China correspondent of The Hindu, and Anshuman Mishra, the Beijing-based correspondent of India’s state-owned public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, who are currently in India on leave that their visas have been “frozen” and they cannot return until further orders.
Asked why China resorted to the suspension of visas of the two Indian journalists, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing that “for a long-time Chinese journalists have received unfair and discriminatory treatment in India”.
“In 2017, the Indian side shortened the period of validity of visas held by Chinese journalists in India to three months or even one month without any valid reason. Since 2020, the Indian side has refused to review and approve Chinese journalists’ applications for stationing in India,” she said.
(With PTI inputs)
