The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday said it hoped that Beijing would allow Indian journalists to work in China amid a diplomatic row between the two countries over visas for foreign reporters.
The development comes a day after Beijing said that it had expelled two Indian journalists in April as a “counter measure” against New Delhi’s “unfair” treatment of Chinese journalists.
State-run Prasar Bharati’s reporter Anshuman Mishra and The Hindu correspondent Ananth Krishnan were barred from returning to China. Both of them were based in Beijing but were in India when their visas had been “frozen”.
At a press conference on Friday, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that New Delhi allows all foreign journalists to operate in India without any difficulties. “Meanwhile, Indian journalists in China have been operating with certain difficulties, such as not being permitted to hire locals as correspondents or as journalists,” he said.
Bagchi said that the Indian government allows foreign journalists to hire locals to run their bureaus. Drawing a comparison with the neighbouring country, he said that Indian journalists face several restrictions while travelling within China.
“The Indian side supports and facilitates foreign journalists in India, I am sure you can attest to it,” Bagchi told reporters. “At the same time there should be no deviations…
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