Globe and Mail journalist detained for three hours by Chinese officials

FILE PHOTO/The Globe and Mail (Photo by theglobeandmail/Facebook)

The Globe and Mail says one of its journalists was detained while reporting in the Xinjiang region in western China.

Nathan VanderKlippe, the Globe’s correspondent in Asia, says in several Twitter posts Wednesday that he was held for about three hours before Chinese officials released him.

The newspaper’s editor-in-chief says VanderKlippe was detained, had his computer seized and was then released from custody, but was followed.

A Globe report says VanderKlippe was in the Elishku township in Xinjiang attempting to do interviews Wednesday evening when a police officer pulled up next to him on a motorcycle before two more officers arrived, along with others who appeared to be government officials.

VanderKlippe says in the report that he identified himself as a journalist and then was told to follow the men to a local government office.

He says the men demanded to search his belongings and when he pushed back, they said the regular rules do not apply to them. He says he received a hand-written note by officials acknowledging that his property had been seized.

VanderKlippe says he was then allowed to leave Elishku by car and says he was followed out of town.

In a statement, editor-in-chief David Walmsley calls the harassment of VanderKlippe in China “deeply disturbing.”

“To arbitrarily detain a reporter, take his computer and then upon releasing him from custody continue to follow his car as if he were little more than a bandit, is a sad indictment,” Walmsley says.

He says Mark McKinnon, a former Asia correspondent for the newspaper, was also expelled from the same region in 2009.