__ __ /'_/\ /'_/| | \ `\ | | | ______ | `\ `\ | | | ______ /'______/\ | |\ `\ `| | | /______/\ | ___ \/| | | |\ `\| | | | ___ \ \ | /'/ \_|/ | | | `\ | | | | | \ \/| | | | __ |_|/' `\__|/' | | | | | | | | \__/_/| | | |__| | | | \/___| |/ China News Digest | |/__/ |/ \_______/(InfoBase June 4 Collection)|_______/ May 16, 1994 **The CND InfoBase Project collects, among other China-related information, materials and/or bibliographical reference to matericals about the Beijing Massacre on June 4, 1989. Please refer to the trailer for more information. No. Subject june5-89.01t # of Lines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Beijing Television: "Martial Law Units Carry out Duty" .............. 37 2. Beijing Radio: "Barbarous Suppression of the People"................. 15 3. CBS' Roth Freed, Back on China Front Lines ..........................110 4. Beijing Martial Law, Democracy Movement Coverage by Foreign Journalists .................................................................... 40 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Beijing Television: "Martial Law Units Carry out Duty" .............. 37 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: BBC, June 5, 1989 Text of Announcer-read Report, Beijing Television 1000 gmt 3 June 89 A spokesman for the headquarters of martial law units today [3rd June] issued a statement in connection with martial law troops being obstructed from moving into Beijing to carry out their duty. He said In accordance with the State Council's martial law order, some martial law units were ordered today to move into some locations where they are to carry out their duty. During the movement they were obstructed by some students and people who did not understand the real situation. The officers and men of the units displayed a high degree of restraint. The spokesman said When the troops moved into some intersections in urban areas, an extremely small number of people fabricated rumours and incited some students and people to set up roadblocks to stop the troops' onward movement. Some people even smashed the military vehicles and tried to seize weapons. Some people shouted agitative slogans, besieged the cadres and fighters, humilated them and swore at them. An extremely small number of lawless elements hurled glass bottles, bricks and rocks at the troops who were moving. Many cadres and fighters were wounded. These elements' acts seriously obstructed the martial law units' movement, interfered with the enforcement of the martial law order, and brought about serious consequences. During the entire process, cadres and fighters of the martial law units displayed a high degree of patience and restraint, thus avoiding any clashes with the masses and using facts to refute the rumours disseminated by an extremely small number of people, that troops were moving into city to suppress the masses. The spokesman pointed out Martial law units are being stationed at some locations in order to carry out the sacred duty of stopping turmoil and maintaining public and social order in the capital, as prescribed in the martial law order. It is hoped that the vast number of residents and students will not be fooled by the rumours fabricated by an extemely small number of people, or used by an extemely small number people with ulterior motives. Rather, they should actively assist the troops to fulfil their mission of enforcing the martial law and watch out for those people who exaggerate things, fool people with rumours and create disturbances. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Beijing Radio: "Barbarous Suppression of the People".................15 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: BBC, June 5, 1989 Radio Beijing in English for abroad 0400 gmt 4 Jun 89 Remember 3rd June 1989. A most tragic event happened in the Chinese capital, Beijing. Thousands of people, most of them innocent civilians, were killed by fully armed soldiers when they forced their way into the city. Among the killed are our colleagues at Radio Beijing. The soldiers were riding on armoured vehicles and used machine guns against thousands of local residents and students who tried to block their way. When the army convoys made a break through, soldiers continued to spray their bullets indiscriminately at crowds in the street. Eyewitnesses say some armoured vehicles even crushed foot soldiers who hesitated in the front of the resisting civilians. Radio Beijing English Department deeply mourns those [who] died in the tragic incident and appeals to all its listeners to join our protest for the gross violation of human rights and the most barbarous suppression of the people. Because of the abnormal situation here in Beijing there is no other news we could bring you. We sincerely ask for your understanding and thank you for joining us at this most tragic moment. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. CBS' Roth Freed, Back on China Front Lines ..........................110 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1989 By: JAY SHARBUTT, Times Staff Writer CBS correspondent Richard Roth was freed Sunday after nearly 20 hours in captivity in Beijing, during which time he said he was kicked and punched by the Chinese troops who had arrested him and his cameraman. He immediately resumed reporting from Beijing. His release and news reports came as the three major TV networks and CNN aired graphic photographs and videotape footage -- the latter flown out by couriers -- of the pre-dawn carnage in Tian An Men Square, where army troops late Saturday and early Sunday crushed the long student demonstration. The networks' first video footage of the bloodshed, broadcast before dawn Sunday and later that morning, included scenes of bloodied bodies lying on the ground, a tent being crushed by a tank and dramatic shots on ABC of a stalled armored personnel carrier exploding after being set afire by student -thrown Molotov cocktails. Under martial law imposed May 20, live TV and taped video transmissions from Beijing are banned. Network correspondents largely have ignored the taping prohibition, however, and have been flying their news footage from Beijing to Hong Kong, Tokyo and other points. They also have continued to file live telephone reports from Beijing. In a phone conversation with CBS anchor Dan Rather that was broadcast live Sunday morning, Roth said that he and cameraman Derek Williams "were well treated" following the initial encounter with Chinese troops the day before during another live phone call to CBS. That report from a vantage point near Tian An Men Square abruptly halted amid sounds of a scuffle and Roth's cries of "oh, no!" when he was seized. Williams and eight other Westerners, including an unidentified Italian journalist whom Roth said had been badly beaten, also were released Sunday with Roth, a 17-year veteran with CBS News. Roth's release came after CBS News President David Burke sought help from Secretary of State James Baker. Burke had written Baker that Roth's violent seizure "represents the worst form of interference with our obligation to report on the events in China and gives us great concern for the safety of our newsmen." CBS on Sunday said it was indebted to Baker, the United States Information Agency and Sen. Brock Adams (D-Wash.), who has ties with top Chinese officials, for their efforts to secure the release of its two staffers. Exactly what role they played was not disclosed. Roth reported that shortly before his release, civilian authorities asked him to "sign a waiver saying that 'you recognize that it (his reporting) was a risky thing to do and you're responsible for your own security." He did not indicate whether he complied. Roth said he suffered "a small cut" under one eye and a gash on his head when seized by a small group of Chinese troops shortly before dawn Saturday in Beijing. He said he offered no resistance when the armed soldiers grabbed him. "I was pulled along . . . and stumbled a bit and tried to get myself up," he told Rather. "And in the course of . . . righting myself, (I) was then kicked down by one of the soldiers. As I picked myself up, he threw a left hook at me .. . and I didn't duck." He said the cut under his eye later was "treated gently and, it seemed, capably by a Chinese army medic." The troops held Roth and Williams, a New Zealand national who was not hurt, for about 40 minutes in the Great Hall of the People near the square, Roth reported. "We couldn't see what was going on but we could hear the assault (by the army against the demonstrators) that had just begun," he said. "The sounds we heard were ferocious sounds." The troops later took Roth, Williams and a Chinese-speaking American music student who also had been arrested on a Jeep trip through the then-empty Tian An Men Square to a military encampment at the Forbidden City enclosure in Beijing, he said. Roth described the scene as one that seemed "out of a movie," with torn and ripped tents that had housed the protesting students, troops sitting around and several armored personnel carriers, six to eight light tanks and truck-drawn heavy artillery in the square. Turned over to civilian authorities, "we were treated quiet well," he reported, adding that while the holding facility was uncomfortable, his captors "were all essentially courteous to us. . . ." Others held with him included a couple from Long Island, N.Y.; three Swiss tourists; the son of Pakistan's ambassador to China; the Italian journalist, and the Chinese-speaking American music student who had acted as an interpreter for the CBS staffers. All apparently had been watching the demonstrations when arrested. Roth didn't identify the Americans in the group. When they got word that they were being released and prepared to leave the Forbidden City by one exit, he said, a group of soldiers noting that the area outside was ringed by angry students "came to us and said we were crazy to leave through there, it's too dangerous." They walked to a government visa office and were driven away in a government car. During Saturday's pre-dawn violence, network correspondents had been able to report from the scene live by portable telephones and walkie-talkies patched into network offices at Beijing hotels, and relayed both live and on tape by commercial phone lines to network headquarters in the United States. ABC correspondent Kyle Gibson reported that she came under fire three times, but was not hit. NBC feared for the safety of one of its two-member camera crews when it was out of contact for several hours. But staffers Tony Wasserman and Maurice Odell, who'd been separated from correspondent Arthur Kent, showed up safe later Saturday, said Jerry Lamprecht, NBC vice president for news coverage. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Beijing Martial Law, Democracy Movement Coverage by Foreign Journalists .................................................................... 40 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: Broadcasting, June 5, 1989 Officials tell journalists all coverage is prohibited unless approved by city of Beijing; reporter says order is kind of 'censorship almost unheard of anywhere in the world' Beijing city officials have cracked down on efforts of foreign journalists to report on developments in the Chinese capital wherever martial law is in effect. Essentially, foreign journalists have been told that press coverage of any subject is prohibited unless the city's foreign affairs office gives its approval. CBS News correspondent John Sheahan, in a report from Beijing on Thursday (June 1), issued that morning, said the order const"a kind of attempted censorship that's almost unheard of anywhere in the world." Actually, many of the restrictions spelled out by a .spokesman for the city's foreign affairs office in a regular weekly briefing for the foreign press have been in effect since martial law was decreed in parts of the city two weeks ago. But now, the journalists have been told, the restrictions are to be enforced. They deny foreign journalists access to a variety of government institutions and other places, including schools and factories, for the purpose of conducting interviews, taking pictures or videotaping "without approval of the Beijing Municipal People's Government." The restrictions also specifically apply to Tiananmen Square, where students' massive antigovemment demonstrations two weeks ago captured the attention of the world. One new element of press restrictions causing concern among American journalists involves a tightening up on meetings with Chinese activists. The spokesman's statement warns against "press coverage in a disguised form," such as meetings with Chinese citizens at foreign journalists' offices or residences "for interviews on activities prohibited by the [martial law] decrees." All that on top of the continuing ban on satellite transmissions from Beijing. An ABC News spokesman said the restrictions did not appear to be having an adverse impact on that network's coverage. And a spokeswoman for NBC News said its crews went out Thursday and did not encounter any particular difficulty. "It was business as usual," she said. But Sheahan, in his report, said the government "is simply saying that it's their version of the news that's going to get out or else." He also said that while the government is declaring Tiananmen Square off limits to foreign journalists, it is inviting them to "staged rallies in favor of martial law." And a CNN official said, "Obviously the restrictions are a problem." The CNN crews are continuing to do their job, he said, and had not yet encountered any problems. But he added, "We're watching our step." +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Gang Xu, Japan | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | China News Digest (CND) InfoBase covers the following areas: | | History : WWII, Cultural Revolution, June 4, Olympics | | Service : visa/PR, PRC-doc, tax, insurance, travel/living | | Academics : job, conference/workshop, societies, projects | | Other : org intro, book review, community activities | | ------ * ------ * ------ | | To contribute, please send to CND-IB@CND.ORG | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+