A Spanish newspaper has accused China of pressuring journalists after police officers visited the home of one of its staff. 

In a Twitter thread on March 8, Jaime Santirso of Spain’s ABC said three members of the police visited his Beijing home the day before China’s National People’s Congress.

Though Mr Santirso was not at home when the police visited, he wrote that they spoke with his wife.

“The night (20:00) before the start of the National People’s Congress —the most important annual political event in China— three police officers came to my home in Beijing. They came looking for me, but since I wasn’t there they talked to my wife,” Mr Santirso said in a Twitter thread.

The newspaper also commented on the visit in an editorial piece.

“This veiled intimidation, with the explicit intention to influence the tone and content of [Santirso’s] reporting, represents a worrying advance in the hostility toward international media by the Chinese government,” the editorial stated.

VOA reported that China stifled  ABC’s coverage in recent months, noting public condemnation from an embassy in Madrid over a series of articles and China’s Foreign Ministry summoning the ABC bureau chief to complain about his reporting in 2021.

The International Federation of Journalists condemned the “wolf warrior diplomacy” employed by China toward Spanish journalists and said the country showed a well-known pattern of intimidation toward foreign media.

“The IFJ has documented a clear pattern of harassment or intimidation of journalists from countries that do not follow in step with China’s line, particularly on any sensitive topics. It is this type of intimidation that has forced other correspondents to leave their posts or relocate,” Jane Worthington, IFJ’s regional director, told VOA.

It was not the first instance of interference between the media and the Chinese government. 

Under President Xi Jinping’s administration, there have been multiple reports on press freedom restrictions and harassment of foreign media and their staff.