By IANS
Kathmandu : China has intensified its crackdown in Tibet after a visit by two western journalists, a rights organisation has charged.
A travel agency was closed down in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, for having facilitated the tour of two foreign journalists, while a Tibetan was fined and many who had come in contact with the visitors questioned by the Chinese authorities, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said.
Tim Johnson of the US newspaper chain McClatchy Tribune, and Harald Maass of the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau, travelled to Tibet on tourist permits to avoid restrictions placed on journalists visiting the region.
Though Beijing recently announced that during the run-up to the Olympics in Beijing next year journalists would be allowed to travel freely throughout China, Tibet still continues to be out of bounds.
Johnson's formal application to the Chinese foreign ministry to visit Tibet was ignored, forcing the American to travel as a tourist.
During his trip, Johnson wrote on his blog that the people he had talked to were picked up for questioning and a Tibetan was given "an extraordinary fine on trumped-up charges".
He also said a Chinese official at the main Chinese-run travel service lectured him on not talking to any Tibetans because of his status as a 'tourist' and blocked his attempts to travel within the region, making him switch to a local travel agency in Lhasa.
When they returned from Tibet, both journalists were summoned by the Chinese foreign ministry and their reporting criticised, ICT said. The Lhasa agency, which was not named, was shut down.
Zhang Lizhong, a division director at the Chinese foreign ministry's information department, accused the reporters of distorting facts and producing "unacceptable" articles, media watchdog Reporters without Borders said.
Johnson had filed a report on how China had ordered thousands of Tibetans to relocate.
While trying to promote China as a tourist destination and beginning a direct bus service between Tibet and Kathmandu in Nepal, Beijing however does not allow individuals to ride the bus, giving travel permits only to groups who can be monitored more easily.
A Kathmandu-based journalist, who visited Tibet last month, was told by Chinese authorities that if he travelled by bus, he would also have to pay for two officials who would accompany him to facilitate his trip.
Even though he finally went by air, he was constantly accompanied by two young Chinese women and had to keep them informed about all his travel plans.
The fresh Chinese crackdown comes after five Americans, including one of Tibetan descent, protested at the Everest base camp in April against China's occupation of Tibet and the Olympic Games Committee's decision to allow Beijing to hold the hallowed games despite its poor human rights record.
China is particularly sensitive to negative media coverage on Tibet since it has planned an ambitious Olympic Torch relay that will cover five continents and summit Mt Everest, the highest point in the world, in 2008.
A team of Tibetan mountaineers recently carried out a trial of the Olympic flame ceremony on Everest and was successful in lighting approximately half of the torches in a test run.