A screenshot that shows the postition where NOS correspondent Sjoerd den Daas was standing Photo: Web

While the world's attention was fixed on the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on Friday night, Dutch media outlet NOS accused Chinese security guards on Twitter of "intruding" in its journalistic reporting.

According to the tweet, NOS correspondent Sjoerd den Daas "was pulled away from the camera by security guards at 12:00 pm" while live on camera. 

In an outdated cliché of Western media that intended to jab China's "restriction" of press freedom, the tweet claimed that "this is increasingly becoming a daily reality for journalists in China." 

The tweet easily ignited anti-China forces on the social media platform, who coordinated with this China-smearing campaign. 

But a close investigation into the matter reveals that this Dutch media outlet was simply engaged in farce. The fact is that the reporter had entered an area where Beijing police had notified on Thursday that it would be under temporary control during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. In face of security guards, the reporter failed to show his identity card and kept escalating the incident. Apparently, the security guards' "intrusion" was both reasonable and justified.  

The Global Times has found some evidence according to details in the video shown by NOS to support the conclusion that the media was confusing the right and the wrong.

First, according to the video, the Global Times figured out that Daas was standing at a cross of the Beisihuanzhong road and the Beichenxi road, which Beijing police had announced as early as on Thursday would be under temporary control from 2 pm Friday onward. The NOS show was shooting at 7 pm Friday.  

Only personnel and vehicles that can provide certificates to attend the opening ceremony or issued the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games can pass the area during controlled hours, according to the Beijing police announcement.

Moreover, Daas and the cameraman continued to shoot the live show although they could not provide any certificates. The guards were patiently persuading them to stop and leave at the beginning, as shown in the video. Sweat can clearly been seen running off from a guard's head when he tries to ask Daas to leave politely.

At last, the guard found no other way to stop Daas reporting but only tried to pull Daas out of the position. In the video, it is shown that Daas, who had neither shown any valid certificate or showing any respect to the patient guard who had tried to communicate with him, shouted "what are you doing" at the guard before the video came to an end.     

To sum up, the responsibility for this incident lies squarely with the Dutch NOS reporter and his camera crew. They not only showed up at the area under temporary control, but also refused to show their accreditation to the security personnel and even refused to communicate with them, escalating the situation.

To be honest, their series of practices are very suspicious. It seems that they were not reporting news, but were "staging an incident."

Last but not the least, NOS admitted in its own post that the reporter was completely fine and finished his report in a few minutes. In fact, it proved that the security guards were not "interfering with the interview" at all but wanted them to follow the rules and move to a more appropriate location.

However, it is just easier for some arrogant and ignorant Western media to smear and discredit others rather than admit their own fault, isn't it?

Global Times