The Washington Post - 18.03.2020

A2 eZ re THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAy, MARCH 18 , 2020

partial reporting about its two

largest economies, both of them

now battling a common epidem-

ic.”

Baquet s aid it was a “grave mis-

take for China to move backward

and cut itself off from several of

the world’s top news organiza-

tions.”

At the VoA, director Amanda

Bennett said the organization is

reviewing China’s statement. She

noted that the VoA operates un-

der a “congressionally mandated

firewall, which prohibits editorial

influence or control by the U.S.

government.”

“We remain committed to con-

tinuing to serve as a consistently

reliable, trusted a nd authoritative

source of news to our Chinese-

speaking audiences,” Bennett

said.

[email protected]

carol Morello and Paul Farhi

contributed to this report.

Beijing expelled three Wall Street

Journal reporters, marking the

first time since mao Zedong’s rule

that multiple foreign journalists

were kicked out at o nce.

Beijing cast the move as a re-

sponse to a feb. 3 headline on an

opinion section piece in the Jour-

nal that referred to China, while i t

battled the novel coronavirus, as

“the real sick m an of Asia.”

matt murray, the paper’s editor

in chief, s aid the Journal will keep

reporting.

“We oppose government inter-

ference with a free p ress anywhere

in the world,” he said. “our com-

mitment to reporting fully and

deeply on China is unchanged.”

Dean Baquet, executive editor

of the New York Times, called the

Chinese order “especially irre-

sponsible at a time when the

world needs the free and open

flow of credible information

about the c oronavirus pandemic.”

“It is critical that the govern-

ments of the United States and

China move quickly to resolve this

dispute and allow journalists to

do the important work of inform-

ing the public,” he added. “The

health and safety of people

around the world depend on im-

China has long had a complicat-

ed relationship with foreign me-

dia.

over the past decade, Beijing

has delayed or revoked press cre-

dentials to punish news outlets for

lines of coverage that it does not

like — such as reports on repres-

sion in Xinjiang or investigations

into the wealth of the country’s

leaders.

The United S tates h as struggled

to respond, wary that placing re-

strictions on Chinese media in the

United States might hurt U.S.

journalists in China.

That U.S. caution ended last

month. The State Department an-

nounced on feb. 18 that it would

now treat the U.S. operations of

five Chinese news organizations

as official government entities, or

“foreign missions.” The U.S. list

included the state-run n ews agen-

cy Xinhua a nd the China Daily.

The next day, China fired back.

“Severely limiting the flow of

that information, which China

now seeks to do, only aggravates

the situation,” B aron said.

The new rules take aim at s ome

U.S. media outlets but not others.

The Associated Press and

Bloomberg News have offices in

Beijing, for instance, as do major

U.S. broadcasters including CNN,

ABC, N BC and C BS.

Some U.S. media outlets base

their East Asian teams in Hong

Kong, where press freedom has

been largely protected under a

“one country, two systems” agree-

ment since the territory returned

to Chinese control in 1997.

The New York Times and the

Wall Street Journal have large

newsrooms in Hong Kong. The

Post h as a bureau there.

There is no indication from the

Chinese ministry statement that

Hong Kong operations will be af-

fected.

HAppenIng todAy

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CorreCtIons

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BY MATT ZAPOTOSKY

former congressman Duncan

D. Hunter — the California re-

publican who won reelection

while under federal i ndictment,

only to later admit wrongdoing

in the case and resign — was

sentenced Tuesday to 11 months

in federal prison, authorities

said.

The penalty brings to a close a

dramatic case in which prosecu-

tors aired publicly how the con-

gressman used hundreds of thou-

sands of dollars in campaign

funds to pay for family vacations,

theater tickets and even to facili-

tate extramarital affairs, while

Hunter countered that he was

being unfairly targeted by a polit-

icized Justice Department.

While Hunter ultimately

pleaded guilty to misusing cam-

paign funds late last year, the

move came after he had success-

fully sought reelection. He re-

signed early this year.

Prosecutors argued in court

filings that his reelection, fueled

by lies and attacks on the Justice

Department, warranted a stiff

sentence. They argued for a term

of 14 months.

“our very democracy is at risk

when a criminal like H unter wins

an election by weaponizing the

tropes of fake news and the deep

state,” prosecutors wrote in their

sentencing recommendation.

“This is not a mere philosophical

debate in the 50th Congressional

District; it is a fact.”

Hunter was initially charged

alongside his wife, margaret,

though she pleaded guilty last

year and agreed to cooperate

with prosecutors — a devastating

blow to her husband’s defense.

She is scheduled to be sentenced

April 7, if the proceeding is not

delayed over coronavirus fears.

Prosecutors said in court Tues-

day that they had been willing to

delay Duncan D. Hunter’s sen-

tencing due to the public health

crisis, though he preferred to

move forward.

Hunter’s defense had argued

for a term of home confinement.

Devin Burstein, one of his attor-

neys, said in a statement that the

case was not what prosecutors

made it out to be.

“The Court saw this case for

what it was,” Burstein said. “far

from the attack on democracy

the government claimed, this

was simply about misspending.

... Congressman Hunter is ready
to put this behind him and to
continue helping veterans in ev-
ery way possible.”
Hunter was ordered to report
to prison by may 29, authorities
said.

Hunter, 43, who represented

an area near San Diego, served in

Iraq and Afghanistan as a ma-

rine. Sworn in at age 32 to the

congressional seat once held by

his father, Hunter had shown a

strong interest in national secu-

rity issues, though he also was a

famously outspoken advocate for

e-cigarettes, once even using a

vape device during a House

Transportation Committee hear-

ing to discuss a proposal from

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton

(D-D.C.) to ban vaping on air-

planes.

He was one of the first mem-

bers of Congress to support Don-

ald Trump as the republican

nominee for president, and after

he was charged, he took a Trump-

like approach to the case, attack-

ing the prosecutors as politically

motivated.

Assistant U. S. Attorney Phillip

L.B. Halpern said in an interview

after the sentence that Hunter’s

accusations “pose a threat to our

society,” and prosecutors be-

lieved that U.S. District Judge

Thomas J. Whelan’s s entence was

“appropriate and wise.”

“If people don’t have respect

for our institutions, that’s when

democracies begin to crumble,”

Halpern said.

Halpern added later, “Today’s

sentence reinforces the notion

that truth still matters, that facts

still matter. After all, a system

that is willing to abandon facts

must also be willing to abandon

justice.”

When a reporter observed that

Trump similarly has attacked the

Justice Department, Halpern re-

turned to Hunter’s allegations

about the case against him.

“We know that [his accusa-

tions] in this case are not true,”

he said.

Asked his thoughts on a possi-

ble Trump pardon for Hunter,

Halpern said, “Those decisions

are above my pay grade.”

[email protected]

Ex-congressman Duncan Hunter gets 11 months in prison

Republican gets penalty

after winning reelection

while under indictment

The statement did not mention

pulling credentials for Time and

the VoA, but it was unclear

whether C hina w ould take further

action.

The moves came after the Unit-

ed States took measures in febru-

ary against Chinese Communist

Party-controlled news outlets op-

erating in the United States. Later,

China expelled three Wall Street

Journal reporters.

“I regret China’s decision today

to further foreclose the world’s

ability to conduct free-press oper-

ations that f rankly would be really

good for the Chinese people,” Sec-

retary of State mike Pompeo told

reporters. “This is unfortunate. I

hope t hey’ll reconsider.”

The new rules would reshape

foreign journalism in China.

The statement said that U.S.

citizens working for The Post, the

Times and the Wall Street J ournal,

whose press credentials are due to

expire before the end of 2020,

must hand back their press cards.

They w ill n ot be able to go t o Hong

Kong or macao as a base for work,

it said.

That will mean that many jour-

nalists will be forced to leave. An

initial review by The Post s uggest-

ed that the Chinese order would

apply to one of the newspaper’s

correspondents, Gerry Shih, who

is a U.S. citizen, said Douglas Jehl,

foreign editor at T he Post.

“We unequivocally condemn

any action by China to expel U.S.

reporters,” said martin Baron, ex-

ecutive editor of The Post.

“The Chinese government’s de-

cision is particularly regrettable

because it comes in the m idst of an

unprecedented global crisis,

when clear and reliable informa-

tion about the international re-

sponse to covid-19 is essential,” he

continued.

CHInA from A

Expulsions follow U.S. move on Chinese media

andy Wong/assocIated Press

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian, seen last month in Beijing. The ministry

said three U.S. news outlets, plus Voice of America and Time, will be designated as “foreign missions.”

Key dates in the

back-and-forth

between U.s., China

Feb. 18: the state department

designates five chinese media

outlets as official government

entities. this causes them to be

treated as though they are

diplomatic outposts of the chinese

government and subject to the

same constraints.

Feb. 19 : china expels three Wall

street Journal reporters in

retaliation for a column headline

published by the paper that

chinese officials deemed racist.

March 2: the tr ump

administration orders four chinese

news outlets operating in the

United states to reduce their

staffing levels by a third.

March 3: china accuses the tr ump

administration of having a double

standard and of bullying, and vows

retaliation.

March 17: the chinese

government essentially pulls the

credentials of three major U.s.

news organizations: the new york

times, the Wall street Journal and

the Washington Post.

— The Washington Post

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