Prime Minister Paul Martin's trip to China was being overshadowed by human rights concerns Friday, before he had even left the country.

Two Chinese-born Canadian journalists claimed China was trampling on freedom of the press after Beijing on Wednesday refused them visas to visit the country as part of Martin's entourage.

Martin said Canada would continue to put pressure on China to allow the two to accompany him. "This is very serious issue – freedom of expression, freedom of press – we have asked the Chinese ... for an explanation," he said.

Joe Wang
Joe Wang

David Ren and Daniel Zhu are television journalists with New Tang Dynasty Television, a Chinese-language television station that says it produces programming sometimes critical of the Chinese government in 50 bureaus around the globe.

Joe Wang, president of NT Dynasty TV Canada told the CBC: "I feel as a Canadian journalist my right to freedom of press has been violated."

The Chinese Embassy reportedly gave no reason for refusing Ren and Zhu visas while other journalists on the trip apparently got theirs without problems.

Station reports 'sensitive' issues

"We don't shy away from reporting sensitive issues ... we reported extensively on the SARS crisis, and the persecution of Roman Catholics and [followers] of Falun Gong inside China," Wang said.

Wang said NTD TV's signal can be received uncensored inside China, and therefore it had to "report the issues that matter to Chinese."

He denied that New Tang was a front for Falun Dafa, otherwise known as Falun Gong, the quasi-religious prayer and meditation movement the Chinese government has outlawed as subversive.

The prime minister's office was reportedly working on getting the two New Tang journalists accredited after all, but time was running out. The prime minister's plane is scheduled to leave Ottawa for China at 1:30 a.m. ET on Saturday morning.

Wang said he hoped his journalists would join the Canadian visitors in China even if it meant taking a later plane.