NYT 1984: China Expels a Reporter

Archiwalny artykuł z New York Times o wydaleniu Terzaniego z Chin.

CHINA EXPELS A REPORTER WHO COLLECTS ANTIQUES

By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN (The New York Times); Foreign Desk
March 8, 1984, Thursday
Late City Final Edition, Section A, Page 8, Column 1

PEKING, March 7— The Chinese Government said today that it had expelled a foreign journalist because he had been caught trying to smuggle antiques out of China.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said the journalist, Tiziano Terzani, the Peking correspondent of the West German magazine Der Spiegel, had lost his journalist’s accreditation and was told ”to leave at the earliest possible date.” The spokesman, Wang Zhenyu, did not offer evidence to support the smuggling allegation.

Mr. Terzani, an Italian citizen, left Peking on Monday and flew to his magazine’s office in Hamburg, West Germany.

At a weekly briefing for foreign correspondents, Mr. Wang declined to say what kind of antiques Mr. Terzani was accused of trying to smuggle and would not put a value on them. Mr. Wang said the Foreign Ministry’s information department, which accredits all foreign journalists based in Peking, did not inquire about the details because the matter was in the hands of the Public Security Bureau, which runs China’s police.

”Our Public Security Bureau’s official task is to protect the country and it is an organ of power and we have no difference with them in their task,” Mr. Wang, a deputy director of the information office, told reporters. Mr. Wang said Mr. Terzani was stopped at a customs post near Macao, evidently early this year, and had some ”historical relics,” as antiques are called in China. When he later returned to Peking from Hong Kong, Mr. Wang said, security officials searched Mr. Terzani’s apartment and found 57 other ”historical relics,” 23 of which it was illegal to export. Late tonight the official New China News Agency said customs officials had caught Mr. Terzani on Feb. 1 trying to smuggle out a gilded bronze statue of Buddha dating from the Sung Dynasty, which ruled China from 960 to 1279.

”When a security person asked him, he admitted that he had violated the law and also put it in black and white,” Mr. Wang said at the briefing. ”According to what he has done, we could have treated him more severely, but we treated him leniently and only kept 23 pieces.” He said the journalist had paid a $1,000 fine.

In response to questions, Mr. Wang said that ”what he has done deserved a very severe punishment, even a life sentence, but considering that he confessed that he violated the law of China, the Public Security Bureau treated him very leniently.”

Źródło: nytimes.com

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