CNN Reporter Roughed Up By Chinese Police While Covering Trial Of Human Rights Activist
COOPER: Today in Beijing, a Chinese activist who leads a campaign to expose government corruption went on trial. He's accused of gathering crowds to disturb public order. The activist is a high profile in China so the officials were intent on keeping the trial under wraps. However, CNN's David McKenzie was determined to cover it. For his efforts, he was roughed up by police as he and his crew attempted to approach the courthouse. That's the video right there. They recorded the assault on camera. Here is part of what happened.</s>DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're heading towards a court in Beijing where a prominent activist goes on trial today. This is a public space. There's no need to shout at me. Just behind us the name of the activist is Chou Zerong. The reason he's in trial is because he had a gathering of people several times and was one of the founders of the New Citizen's Movement. That is why there are all these police surrounding me here. We're going to go try look at the entrance of the court, which is just here. Sorry. You can't stop me. This is a public place. This is a public place. Why must I wait?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're Passport.</s>MCKENZIE: This is a public space. This is a public space. Excuse me. You don't push me. Do not push me. This is a public space. Don't hit me like this. This is a public space. They're physically manhandling us. They're physically manhandling me. This is a public space. I'm allowed to report. I'm allowed to report. You cannot do this.</s>COOPER: That's exactly what they did. By the way, our signal in China has gone black. There's some censor in China watching us as we're talking about this and turned the signal off. Let's talk to David McKenzie. David, the fact that in the face of that kind of hugger you remained as calm as you did is remarkably impressive. Just to be clear, Chinese law allows you to shoot in public places, right? You were not doing anything illegal.</s>MCKENZIE: Well, look, Anderson, there's a law on paper in China and then there's the law in practice. As foreign reporters, we can report on paper. They say we can report throughout this country and do effectively what we would do in the states as it were. But in practice, in instances like this, sensitive cases like this, when thugs take it into their own hands to be enforcers of the law, there's very little one can do about it. So the rights that might be on paper get thrown out the window.</s>COOPER: It's also fascinating. You see censorship in real time happening again on the bottom of our screen there you can see us being censored right now in China. I want to play more of this video that you shot. Let's watch.</s>MCKENZIE: They're now physically manhandling us. They've taken away our place cards. This is not illegal what we are doing. We are reporters. We are reporting in a public space. Ouch. These guys are physically manhandling us. They're not allowing to us do our work. We were just on a public space trying to tell a story. Please do not kick me. Do not physically manhandle us. Well done, you broke the camera. You broke the camera. Just calm down!</s>COOPER: What were they saying to you as they were basically assaulting you like that?</s>MCKENZIE: Well, the one gentleman there is in fact responding with English swear word at us. But certainly they were telling us to get out of the area. They wanted to see our press cards, Anderson. When we gave them our press cards they took them away and our phones. They didn't allow us to call CNN. They didn't allow us to call the foreign ministry. The government has responded, saying that they'll investigate this case. But really, they say that there was a police cordon that was very clear. That was not the case. We and several other journalists were pushed out of the area. So certainly not transparent in any way's in not allowing foreign journalists to do their work.</s>COOPER: David McKenzie, glad you and your crew are OK. Thanks very much. Appreciate that. Keeping them honest now, a pretty simple notion, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence especially when those making the claims hold extraordinary power such as Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee as only one of a few dozen lawmakers privy to some of the nation's secrets. When he said this on "Meet The Press" this weekend suggesting that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was working for intelligence while still working for the agency raised eyebrows. Listen.</s>REPRESENTATIVE MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN: I believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don't think that's a coincidence number one. Number two.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Needing the Russians help, Ed Snowden?</s>ROGERS: I believe there's a question to be answered there. I don't think it was a gee whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the FSB.</s>COOPER: Now, you can consider Snowden a traitor or a hero, whatever you want, for stealing and leaking classified information. You can wonder who if anyone he was working for. What you can't do, however, is determine for yourself whether Chairman Rogers' implication is true. That's because he gave no evidence to back it up. Today Edward Snowden from Russia denied the implication calling it, quote, "absurd." So that leaves his word against Congressman Rogers. Now Mr. Snowden is exiled in Russia so we're unable to talk to him. We thought we might have better luck with Chairman Rogers. We asked him to come on the program to tell us what he could about his claim. He declined. Which again leaves the allegation hanging out there totally unsubstantiated. The implication from Mr. Rogers clear, basically trust me. Keeping them honest, with so many stories we've taken public servants on their word before only to find out they weren't telling the truth or exaggerating. Listen to this exchange from Senator Ron Widen and the director of National Intelligence James Clapper.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I wanted to see is if you could give me a yes or no answer to the question. Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions of hundreds of millions of Americans?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does not?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not wittingly.</s>COOPER: Again when the facts came to light we learned that statement by Director Clapper was false. This time with the latest allegation we're still waiting for facts. Dana Bash has been trying to figure them out. She joins us now with more. You tried to get in touch with Congressman Rogers. What were you told?</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a spokeswoman for Rogers told me that what he said on Sunday is all he can say at this point. She encouraged me to look closely at the transcripts. He was on the NBC program that you just showed? After that he was also on CBS. He was pressed. And there he suggested that he was deducing that Snowden could have been a Russian spy based on clues. One of them was that some of the information he said Snowden got had nothing to do but with privacy issues but instead with U.S. military capabilities and operations overseas -- Anderson.</s>COOPER: What are your sources telling you about what the House Intelligence Committee which Congressman Rogers heads knows about this? You could say well maybe he was told something by the House Intelligence Committee in a closed door meeting.</s>BASH: Exactly. Well, I'm told that neither the committee he chairs, which is the House Intelligence Committee, or its counterpart in the Senate, the intelligence committee there, has gotten any official indication that Edward Snowden was a spy for Russia or anywhere else. The reason is because when these active investigations of a leak go on, the protocol, the counter intelligence protocol is to wait until the report is done to give these oversight committees the information. In fact, on Sunday you saw that there was also the Senate Intelligence Chairwoman, Diane Feinstein, on with him. She was much more circumspect. She was asked about this allegation and suggestion that Rogers made and Diane Feinstein said well he may well have, but we don't know at this stage. But Mike Rogers is also someone who may have his own sourced in the intelligence community and likely does. He was a FBI agent, a special agent himself before coming to Congress. So it's possible that he got a tip from an investigator that this is something they were looking at, but because he won't elaborate we just don't know.</s>COOPER: All right, again, no evidence of this in the public domain that we've been able to find. We'll continue to look for it and ask for questions from Rogers. Dana, appreciate the reporting. Before we go, I do want to take a look at the bottom right hand corner of the screen there. That is a shot of CNN inside China. The blackout they blacked out our signal during David McKenzie's report. As you see it is back on again just ahead tonight so hello, China. What Olympic officials reveal today about another terrorist threat to the Sochi games. Plus what Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said today about his latest drunken rant, which was naturally caught on video.