China defends refusing accreditation to French journalist

China has refused to renew media accreditation to a French journalist over her reporting on terrorism in Muslim-majority Xinjiang province as the country defended its move terming her reporting on the strategically important region as "offensive".
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson yesterday confirmed that press credentials for a French journalist Ursula Gauthier has not been renewed for her comments regarding terrorism in Xinjiang.
Spokesman Lu Kang said, "Gauthier had offended the Chinese people with an article published on November 18 in which she overtly voiced support for terrorist activities".
In the article published shortly after the Paris attacks she blamed government policy in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for terrorist attacks, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Gauthier is a Beijing-based correspondent for French news magazine L'Obs.
Lu said Gauthier failed to apologise to the Chinese people for her wrong words and it is no longer suitable for her to work in China.

He said China ensures the legal rights of foreign media organisations and journalists covering China stories, but will never tolerate the "freedom" of speaking for terrorism.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China has criticised the government decision saying thatit is "deeply concerned with the attempts of intimidation" in Gauthier's case.
Reporters Without Borders also denounced the "media lynching" and "campaign of defamation and intimidation" against the French journalist.

Gauthier spent 10 years in China from 1979 to 1989 and studied at Peking University before being accredited to L'Obs in 2009.