Belgian TV crew beaten in China

November 28, 2008 Just ahead of World AIDS Day Monday, a Belgian TV journalist and his crew reporting on the spread of the disease in China were assaulted and robbed by county officials in Henan province, highlighting the ongoing difficulty Beijing has enforcing official media openness begun around the Olympics. On Thursday, after they interviewed several HIV/AIDS support groups in Henan, in Central China, Belgian journalist Tom Van de Weghe and his team from Flemish public television VRT were beaten and robbed of cash and equipment by eight men recruited by authorities in Henan province, according to The Foreign Correspondents Club in China. The arrests were linked to 106 cases of unsafe blood collection, illegal organization of people to sell plasma and “serious malpractice” in blood market supervision, Vice Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei told official Chinese media at the time.

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