Anglo-American press applying double standard on Chinese journalists: SCMP

HONG KONG - Mainstream Anglo-American press has applied double standard or an unspoken reporting rule on Chinese journalists and academics, according to a recent opinion piece by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

For them, Western journalists are truth-seekers, and Chinese journalists and academics who are investigated, detained, expelled, denied a visa or otherwise harassed by their Western host countries don't deserve a free-press defence, said the article.

The article listed a slew of incidents of Western state censorship and expulsion of Chinese journalists and academics to reveal the hypocrisy of so-called free press, including the US Justice Department's demand for five American subsidiaries of Sing Tao newspaper, Hong Kong's oldest in the Chinese language, to register as foreign agents.

"Strangely ... you rarely hear about them," it said, noting that the Western media described the Chinese journalists as spies or criminals simply because they are Chinese.

Ironically, when a reporter from The Economist was denied visa renewal in Hong Kong recently, the Western mainstream news media again rose to the occasion and made sure everyone knows about it, said the article.