Journalist leaves Xinhua news agency; claims he was asked to spy on Dalai Lama

A former Canadian journalist for China's Xinhua News Agency is accusing the agency of using its foreign journalists as spies. According to The Canadian Press, fifty-five year-old freelance journalist Mark Bourrie says that his Ottawa bureau chief at Xinhua wanted him to use his press pass to attend a news conference with the Dalai Lama, and "turn over all notes and materials without writing a story." Xinhua denies Bourrie's claim.

In a recent interview, Bourrie said, ""The core issue is how much access we're willing to give to people who are both journalists and agents of the Chinese government in Ottawa. When the crunch came with the Dalai Lama, it was obvious they weren't working as reporters anymore; that they were working as agents of the Chinese government." Xinhua has long been seen by the West as a mouthpiece for the Chinese government. For more on the story, read the piece at the Montreal Gazette.

(Photo by Philip Jägenstedt via Flickr using a CC-BY license.)

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