CNN Reporter Detained for Showing Obama-Mao T-Shirt in Shanghai
2009-11-18 9:8
In Shanghai, a CNN correspondent says she was detained for two hours by Chinese security guards after she held a banned T-shirt in front of the camera. The shirt showed so-called “ObaMao”—U.S. President Barack Obama looking like Mao Zedong.
The incident took place while CNN correspondent Emily Chang was filming in a Shanghai market.
In a blog on the CNN website, Chang says she hunted for the T-shirt after Chinese authorities banned vendors from selling them—ahead of Obama’s visit this week. Authorities may have been concerned that comparing him with the former Chinese dictator might offend the U.S. president.
Chang had been saying on camera, quote, “This is the T-shirt everybody is talking about”—when two security guards walked by.
She says as the guards tried to pull the T-shirt from her, there was a scuffle—even as the CNN camera was rolling. The guards then detained her and her colleagues for two hours before releasing them.
She told AFP that she still has the T-shirt.


