The British public broadcaster BBC said one of its journalists in China, who was covering protests in Shanghai against the regime's draconian 'Zero Covid' policy, was arrested and 'beaten up by police'.
"The BBC is very concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering protests in Shanghai," a spokesperson for the group said in a statement.
The reporter said he was "beaten and beaten by the police" while working as an accredited reporter in the country.
Hundreds of people demonstrated this weekend in China in several major cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, to protest the confinements and restrictions imposed by the authorities to fight the coronavirus epidemic.
The spokesman explained that the BBC had
"no official explanation or apology from the Chinese authorities, beyond a claim by officials, who later released him, that they had arrested him for his own good in the case." had caught Covid in the crowd".
For his part, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that
Lawrence's arrest in Shanghai, as part of protests against anti-Covid measures, took place "because he did not identify himself as a journalist".
The British government today called the actions of the Chinese police "unacceptable" and "worrying".
"Whatever happens, freedom of the press should be sacrosanct
," Business Secretary Grant Shapps told LBC radio.