French journalist expected to leave China over reporting

BEIJING, Dec 26: A French journalist says she's prepared to leave China and does not expect authorities to renew her press credentials because of her reporting of Beijing's efforts to equate ethnic violence in the western Muslim region with global terrorism.

Ursula Gauthier, a long-time journalist for the French news magazine L'Obs, said on late Friday night that China's Foreign Ministry demanded that she issue a public apology and distance herself from any group that should present her case as infringement of press freedom in China.


Gauthier says there's no room for negotiations and that she plans to leave on Dec. 31, when her visa expires.

China argues violence in the Xinjiang region is part of global terrorism, while Gauthier wrote that some cases appear to be homegrown.

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