German journo claims tablet, phone trashed in China
(01-08 09:28)
A German reporter investigating a case of five children killed by carbon monoxide poisoning in southwest China said there had been a break-in at his hotel and his computer and smartphone sabotaged.
Bernhard Zand, a reporter for the German weekly Der Spiegel, was investigating the accidental deaths in November of five street boys in Bijie, Guizhou province, which had cast a negative light on the country's social safety net, AFP reports.
In the course of his reporting Zand interviewed the Chinese journalist who broke the story and had been subsequently detained for several weeks, and also spoke with relatives of the dead children. However while in Bijie, Zand reported that he and his Chinese assistant were constantly followed by unidentified men.
After returning to their hotel one evening last week in the provincial capital Guiyang, the pair found multiple files had been deleted from their laptops, and Zand's computer tablet and iPhone had been destroyed.
“It was a pre-meditated break-in,’’ Zand told AFP, adding a memory card containing photos files had also been completely deleted.
Zand filed a complaint with local police and Der Spiegel has called on Swiss hotel group Kempinski seeking information on the break-in at the hotel.
|
|
|
|
