Swiss journalist detained in Shanghai during ‘zero Covid’ protests

Police officers block a road during a protest triggered by a fire in Urumqi that killed 10 people in Beijing, China, on November 27, 2022. Keystone / Mark R. Cristino

A correspondent of Swiss public television RTS was briefly detained by Shanghai police after a live broadcast on the anti-lockdown protests that have flared across China.

Michael Peuker was reporting live from Shanghai on the RTS Sunday evening news programme when he was surrounded by police officers. 

“The tension here is at its peak. Proof of this is that I am now surrounded by three police officers, I will be taken to the police station after this broadcast,” he explained live on the 19h30 programme.

Peuker was threatened with arrest but after several minutes of negotiations, the correspondent and his cameraman were released. Their equipment was initially loaded into the trunk of a police car to be seized for investigation. However, it was finally returned to them without being checked. 

Tensions are high in China as public anger mounts against the government’s draconian “zero Covid” policy that has been in place for almost three years. Protests against the lockdowns broke out on Sunday in Shanghai, Beijing and other Chinese cities, including Wuhan.

A journalist from the BBC who was covering protests in Shanghai was arrested on Sunday and beaten up by the police, according to the British public broadcaster.

“The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai,” a spokesperson for the BBC said in a statement. 

China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that the BBC reporter did not identify himself as a journalist.

A Reuters journalist was also detained for about 90 minutes on Sunday night, before being released.