VanderKlippe adds Press Freedom award to cache

By Mike Williscraft
NewsNow

West Lincoln native Nathan VanderKlippe – The Globe and Mail’s China correspondent – has added the prestigious 2021 Press Freedom Award to his list of accolades.

In making the announcement May 3, award organizer World Press Freedom Canada, noted VanderKlippe’s efforts have done a great deal to inform the world on issues and events in China.

WPFC’s annual award recognizes outstanding achievements by Canadian media workers who produce public-interest journalism while overcoming secrecy, intimidation, refusal to comply with freedom of information requests or other efforts to foil their work.

“Risking detention, deportation or even imprisonment, VanderKlippe reported on forced labour camps where thousands of Uyghurs, a Muslim minority ethnic group, are being held. VanderKlippe evaded attempts to physically bar him from the area, and his photos and reporting helped document China’s controversial practices in Xinjiang,” stated the organization’s release.

For VanderKlippe, it was all in a day’s work.

“It was a particularly intense bit of reporting – trying to get access to an industrial park that has occupied an important spot in accusations that the Chinese government and companies are using forced labour in Xinjiang. For this trip, I was sent to a hotel quarantine on arrival in Xinjiang, then placed through multiple COVID tests and followed everywhere I went, often by teams of people,” said VanderKlippe, who got his newspaper start at Grimsby Lincoln News in 1999 when it was independently owned.

“As I approached the industrial park, groups of men tried to physically obstruct my movements and at times shoved me around to keep me from approaching. I was travelling with another journalist, and we worked together to evade some of the obstruction. We were able to see and photograph a place that Chinese authorities have worked very hard to keep people away from.”

Journalists, generally, pride themselves on being a different breed, but the endeavours VanderKlippe undertakes are beyond what many would pursue let alone excel at, so what drives him to root out his stories?

“I try to report news that is important for people to know as they seek to understand China and its relationship with Canada,” he said.

“In China in recent years, that has often meant peering into some darker places.”

Some of those places bring heightened risk even though, publicly, they are supposed to be open and transparent.

“The only place in China formally closed to journalists is Tibet. Journalists can only travel to Tibet with specific government permission. Elsewhere, China is technically open to reporting. The reality can vary considerably,” noted VanderKlippe.

“In some places, reporting can be done fairly openly. In other places, it is becoming more difficult. It’s not uncommon for plainclothes security agents to follow journalists at close range, both monitoring their movements and intimidating anyone who might agree to an interview. Elsewhere, local officials say news gathering is not allowed without prior government permission – despite rules that clarify that no such prior permission is needed.”

His interest in travel and seeking stories from an early age made his career path an easy choice.

“I’ve always been interested in going wherever there are stories to be told – and seeing and understanding new places. I can’t imagine a better ticket to doing so than journalism. International reporting jobs have become more rare, particularly in Canadian journalism, and I feel immensely privileged that I’ve gotten the chance to report from overseas,” he said.

Of late, due to COVID, VanderKlippe finds himself a “China reporter” these days but looks forward to be able to resume his exploits throughout Asia when travel restrictions ease.