‘This is What it’s Like Trying to Cover a Story in China’

Reporters covering that series of explosions and raging fire at a port in Tianjin, China Wednesday are having a hard time doing their jobs. It’s not only because of the widespread, hard-to-get-to damage, but because Chinese authorities are intervening in their reporting. On the CBS Evening News last night, correspondent Seth Doane reported that local TV stations were giving “little coverage of the story.” Doane was outside a hospital when censors tried to prevent him from reporting.

On CNN, correspondent Will Ripley reported the top four trending topics, which were about Tianjin, were “scrubbed” by authorities. “People have been coming up to us at this location saying ‘foreign media go away,'” Ripley said.