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India restricts coverage of Dalai Lama's visit

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-07 09:23

NEW DELHI: India barred foreign journalists on Thursday from covering a rare visit by the Dalai Lama to a China-India border region.

Foreign media reports said preventing widespread news coverage of the trip was an apparent effort by India to ease Chinese anger.

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The Dalai Lama's planned visit on Sunday to the eastern section of the China-India border, which India calls "Arunachal Pradesh state", has created tension between the neighbors.

"China's stance on the issue is consistent, and we firmly oppose the Dalai Lama's visit to the region," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu earlier said.

Foreigners traveling to the remote mountainous region need special permission from the Indian government, and most foreign journalists did not receive permission to cover the Dalai Lama's visit.

On Thursday, four journalists who had been given permits - including two Associated Press reporters - had them revoked.

A fax shown to the journalists said the permits were cancelled at the request of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. Spokesmen for the ministry were not available for comment.

Indian journalists, however, are allowed to cover the trip.

The Dalai Lama plans to spend five days at a Buddhist monastery in the town of Tawang.

Dibyesh Anand, a political analyst at Westminister University in London, said India wants "to minimize the (news) coverage so that, while assuaging the local elite, it doesn't provoke China".

AP