Publishers deplore barring of journalist

The World Association of Newspapers has expressed its concern at the exclusion of The Irish Times Beijing correspondent, Conor…

The World Association of Newspapers has expressed its concern at the exclusion of The Irish Times Beijing correspondent, Conor O'Clery, from the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, to Tibet.

The Paris-based association, which is the largest professional body representing newspaper publishers in the world, wrote yesterday to Mrs Robinson saying it was "greatly concerned that your office should be seen to restrict in any way a reporter's professional activities".

The controversy arose when Mr O'Clery was prevented from accompanying Mrs Robinson to Tibet following her intervention. The inclusion of just two journalists, Mr O'Clery and Mr Charlie Bird of RTE, both of them Irish, would "send the wrong signal", Mrs Robinson told Mr O'Clery.

In a letter to The Irish Times, Mrs Robinson said she had not vetoed Mr O'Clery going to Tibet but had wanted a pool of journalists. In the event, only Mr Bird went.

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Mr Timothy Balding, director general of the association, said there were at least 15 journalists jailed in China and that freedom of expression was denied to 1.2 bill ion Chinese.

"We fear that the Chinese authorities may interpret this incident as support for their own policy of suppression of free expression", Mr Balding wrote.