HONG KONG—Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang succeeded in preventing any first-hand media coverage of an environmental protest in which thousands of villagers clashed with riot police, local residents said.
As villagers began their sit-in last week outside the Tian Neng Battery Factory in Meishan township, many local residents began calling local media hotlines to try to publicize concerns about high levels of lead in their children’s blood.
“This is a very difficult situation. The police have arrested a lot of people, and local residents are very angry. If you came here to interview local people, they would all tell you what’s going on here,” one woman resident of Meishan told RFA’s Mandarin service.
“We were constantly in touch with media organizations about this issue, but not one of them came here to cover the story,” she said.