Al Jazeera English correspondent Melissa Chan is back in the U.S. after being expelled from China last week, the first accredited foreign journalist to be barred from the country in 14 years. Before her expulsion, Chan knew she was on “shaky ground,” she tells the Los Angeles Times:
In March, she wrote about a distraught mother seeking a daughter who had been forcibly sterilized and put in an illegal “black jail” for violating China’s one-child policy.
“A lot of journalists have done black jail stories,” she said, but hers “was probably the first” to get coverage on TV. “It’s also the first time that we got a government official to respond to a question about the existence of black jails.” The official denied the black jails existed, “but it was on the record, Chan said, “so that was useful for human rights groups. And that could be one reason why there’s the perception that I’m a go-getter.”
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Chan also said there is a “strong possibility” her Twitter account, which she used to detail her dealings with Chinese authorities, contributed to her expulsion.