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Ulf Röller reported for ZDF from Beijing for three years. Now he is leaving China – and takes stock: “As a journalist, you are simply not welcome in a dictatorship.”
Munich/Beijing – He was present at the mass demonstrations in Hong Kong and experienced the beginning of the corona pandemic in Wuhan: Ulf Röller has been reporting on the People’s Republic for the ZDF studio in Beijing since September 2019 China and other countries in the region. Now the journalist is moving to Brussels, and Miriam Steimer is taking over in Beijing. In an interview with FR.de by IPPEN.MEDIA Röller talks about the difficulty of working in a country without freedom of the press.
Mr. Röller, after three years in China, what are your feelings about leaving the country?
A lot of feelings are mixed up there. Of course I’m sad because I’m leaving a lot of friends behind. In addition, China is a diverse, wonderful country with brave, wild and funny people. I will miss that very much. But I’m also worried about my Chinese colleagues, whom I have to leave behind. Chinese working for Western media don’t have it easy.
You are also leaving China at a very tense time…
ZDF man Ulf Röller in China: “I’m someone who sniffs everything like a street dog”
What were your expectations when you came to China in 2019?
You could certainly see that in Hong Kong, from where you reported in 2019…
About IPPEN.MEDIA
That IPPEN.MEDIA–Netzwerk is one of the largest online publishers in Germany. At the locations in Berlin, Hamburg/Bremen, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart and Vienna, journalists from our central editorial office research and publish for more than 50 news offers. These include brands such as Merkur.de, FR.de and BuzzFeed Germany. Our news, interviews, analyzes and comments reach more than 5 million people in Germany every day.
A few months after your arrival in Beijing, the corona pandemic began…
“It was then that I understood for the first time what digital dictatorship means,” says ZDF’s China correspondent
And then?
The next day I wanted to continue shooting but our producer said let’s fly back to Beijing. We did. The airport was closed the next day. We were lucky – otherwise we would have been locked up in Wuhan for weeks. At the beginning of the pandemic, it suddenly became clear how tough the Communist Party can be to impose its ideas and goals.
In the spring of 2022, Beijing was also affected by the corona measures.
In fact?
China viewer Röller: “I’m sure that our offices and apartments are bugged”
More and more foreigners are currently leaving China. Can you understand this escape movement?
I’m leaving the country too. But I can only partially understand the arguments of the foreigners who live in China and now want to leave it. It’s really difficult when you can’t see your family because of travel restrictions. And I understand that people are afraid of the loss of control caused by the Corona measures. But you know that you live in a dictatorship before you go to China. Because China was already a dictatorship before Corona. Many people who work for foreign companies in China said to us journalists: stop criticizing everything. But now they are experiencing for themselves the harshness with which the state reacts. And this despite the fact that foreigners still live more privileged lives than the Chinese.
How freely have you been able to report from China in recent years?
As a journalist, you always have to expect that you will be followed and stopped by the authorities. I’m also sure that our offices and homes are bugged. Authorities often do everything they can to prevent you from following a particular story. For example, if you buy a ticket to Kashgar to shoot in the Uyghur province of Xinjiang, the local authorities are informed immediately, and they make life difficult for you. It is an eternal competition with the authorities. But what our local helpers do is really heroic. Our risk is calculable, but it is much more difficult for our employees from China. As a journalist, you are simply not welcome in a dictatorship.
How do you manage to look at China with as little bias as possible?
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