US Newspapers Call on China to Reverse Expulsion of Journalists

New York Times Beijing bureau chief Steven Lee Myers (C) speaks with other journalists after the daily Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing on March 18, 2020. - China on March 18 announced it would expel American journalists from three major U.S. newspapers in one of the communist government's biggest crackdowns on the foreign press, escalating a bitter row over media freedoms. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

BEIJING—Publishers of three U.S. newspapers urged China on March 24 to reverse a decision to force out about a dozen of their American journalists, saying in an open letter that the expulsions come at a time of “shared crisis” for the world.

China announced on March 18 it was revoking the press accreditations of all American journalists in the China bureaus of the three newspapers that were due to expire at the end of 2020, effectively expelling them.