A Polish journalist was denied entry into China to cover the China-Europe Forum, which just ended Sunday, after having been ‘blacklisted’ by Chinese authorities.

Konrad Godlewski, a freelancer and sometimes-correspondent for Poland’s largest daily Gazeta Wyborcza, was denied a visa to China on 29 June, just days before being scheduled to fly to Chengdu for the Forum. Chinese authorities simply told Godlewski that he was blacklisted and are not required to provide further explanation.

“I’m shocked and worried that the People’s republic of China denies free press the right to enter its territory. It leads my colleagues and I to revise our view of China,” Godlewski told thenews.pl, adding that he has asked the Polish Foreign Ministry to intervene on his behalf.

Godlewski is the second Polish journalist this year who has been denied entry into China. In May, Maria Kruczkowska, a journalist writing on China for the same daily for 11 years, was banned from entering the country for the World Expo in Shanghai.

Konrad Godlewski, photo: Facebook

Both journalists specialize in China and focusing their careers on covering the Asian country.

Mr. Godlewski, 34-years-old, suspects that an interview he translated for Gazeta Wyborcza in May 2010 between Wang Lixiong, a Chinese writer, and the Dalai Lama, may have promptd authorities to blacklist him. Godlewski, currently a freelance journalist, is a specialist in covering China and has travelled to the country in the past, having lived in Beijing to study the language.

Maria Kruczowska told the International Press Institute: “We do not know if it’s a problem with me or our daily,” adding that being blacklisted from the country she covers effectively means she cannot work.

While China was more lenient towards permitting foreign journalists to enter and report on the country in 2008 for the Beijing Olympics, the country maintains that visas are a sovereign issue and maintains the right to deny entry without explanation. (mmj)

Audio by Alicja Baczyńska

Sources: IPI, SEEMO, Gazeta.pl