Photo: Cui Meng/GT

 
In an exclusive interview with the Global Times, the spokesperson of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region said on Monday Olsi Jazexhi, a reporter from Albania, continued to spread fake information on the region and what he did was out of malice and went against the basic professional ethics as a reporter.  

Olsi Jazexhi, a reporter from Albania, spread several videos online in which he smeared the vocational education and training centers in Xinjiang as "concentration camps" and claimed he saw genocide in Xinjiang. 

The Xinjiang regional government spokesperson told the Global Times that Olsi Jazexhi visited Xinjiang from August 17 to 23, together with more than 20 foreign media reporters from 16 countries. 

Despite that Olsi Jazexhi said during his visit that the study and living conditions in the vocational education and training centers were very good, he chose to ignore the facts and kept spreading false information to the public after returning to his country, the spokesperson said. 

Olsi did not release any of the videos he took during his visit to Xinjiang but kept lying. What he did goes against work ethics as a reporter, the spokesperson said. 

Reports made by other reporters who shared the visit with Olsi showed the truth about Xinjiang. 

The spokesperson cited remarks of a reporter from Russian media outlet RIA Novosti who said that "what I saw is a training school and a pattern on countering terrorism. Russia is also fighting against terrorism and we need to learn from China. We need to cooperate and jointly face the threat of terrorism. China's experience may set an example to other countries." 

The chief editor of a Mongolian newspaper said that "before coming to China's Xinjiang, I heard that the regional government puts many young people together in some 'concentration camps' to brainwash them. But after I visited the training centers, I realized what I read before were malicious reports."

Rustam Atovulloev from Uzbekistan also said that China has protected the rights and interests of Muslims and the development of Islam, according to the spokesperson. 

Since the end of 2018, more than a thousand reporters, officials from international organizations and foreign diplomats have visited Xinjiang. They had reached consensus that Xinjiang has contributed to global counter-terrorism work. And its experience is used as reference. 

"Olsi's attempts to smear Xinjiang will not succeed," said the spokesperson.