By Andrés Pachón | 2024-12-23

BOGOTA -- The state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua has reportedly engaged in irregular labor practices in Colombia in recent years, including unjustified dismissals of journalists and pay cuts that violate Colombian labor laws.

Since Zhou Shengping took over as director of Xinhua's Bogotá office in late 2022, employees have faced increasingly challenging working conditions.

The international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has described Xinhua as "the world's biggest propaganda agency."

A journalist familiar with the challenges faced by Xinhua reporters, who requested anonymity to avoid potential retaliation against their colleagues, shared details with Entorno.

"Although Xinhua is a state-owned enterprise of the Chinese government, it fails to comply with labor laws in several Latin American countries, including Colombia," the source said. "It exploits lax laws and slow judicial processes to violate labor standards and codes."

Payments withheld

Xinhua's Bogotá office employs on average a team of five journalists under service provision contracts rather than formal employment, the source said.

While Colombian labor law mandates an eight-hour workday, Xinhua's contracts reportedly require journalists to be available 24/7 without overtime pay.

"Xinhua's Chinese representatives in Colombia argue that service provision contracts do not define fixed schedules, meaning contractors must be on call around the clock to submit articles whenever instructed," the source said.

At the end of 2022, Xinhua terminated the contracts of two members of its team of journalists, photographers and videographers without justification, according to the source.

The journalists reportedly suffered workplace harassment by Zhou, which culminated in withholding of pay and their firing.

Entorno reached out to Zhou for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

'Propaganda agents'

Many articles must first undergo review and approval by Chinese embassies across Latin America before publication, Xinhua journalists have reported.

Bureau directors in each country, all of whom are Chinese nationals, oversee the process.

"This practice seems to occur in almost every Latin American country where Xinhua operates, according to colleagues in Venezuela, Mexico and Ecuador," the source said.

In Colombia, as in other countries, "the agency's director sends certain articles to the embassy for review, and the embassy decides whether they are published," the source added.

"In this setup, Xinhua directors act less as journalists and more as propaganda agents within the embassy structure."

Venezuelan labor lawsuit

The situation in Colombia mirrors events in Venezuela over a decade ago, as revealed during a phone conversation with a former Xinhua journalist based in Caracas.

"Every three months, we were tasked with preparing a confidential report on the country's political and economic situation," the ex-journalist, who requested anonymity, told Entorno.

"These reports were not for publication but were sent exclusively to Chinese officials. Although the embassy's press attache could have handled it, the task fell to us, likely because, as locals, they trusted our insights more," the ex-journalist said.

The source, along with everyone else at Xinhua's Venezuelan office, was dismissed in 2013 after suing the agency for labor rights violations.

In that contretemps, infuriated Chinese diplomats shut down the bureau after the journalists filed the lawsuit.

The government then fined Xinhua more than $476,000 for breaching Venezuela's Organic Law of Labor and Workers (known as the LOTTT, its Spanish acronym) and the Law on the Practice of Journalism.

Xinhua failed to register employees for mandatory Social Security and did not compensate for overtime, El Universal reported on October 15, 2013.

"One of the lawsuit's key points was the demand for unpaid social benefits," the source said, adding that the case revealed that Xinhua paid reporters in Ecuador below the legal minimum wage.

The Venezuelan Labor Inspectorate additionally identified "instances of labor discrimination and violations of women's rights," as reported by El Universal in 2013.

Xinhua representatives had insisted that labor laws for Xinhua employees in Venezuela "should align with those of the People's Republic of China," El Universal reported.

Xinhua failed to honor basic contractual agreements, the ex-journalist said.

Self-enrichment

The former employee exposed more irregularities by Xinhua's directors, alleging that they diverted funds meant for local journalists to their personal benefit.

"In our case, we discovered that our Chinese directors traveled from Caracas to Colombia to exchange dollars for bolivars. By exploiting the severe devaluation [of that time], they paid us in local currency and pocketed the remaining dollars," he said.

This self-enrichment was possible because the Caracas bureau paid journalists in cash. The practice, according to sources, persisted in Bogotá until a few years ago.

The victorious lawsuit brought significant changes.

When Xinhua eventually reopened its Caracas office, Venezuelan authorities compelled it to register as a commercial entity, process employee payments through bank transfers and appoint a local deputy director -- a structure that remains in place today.

However, according to the source, the situation in Colombia is different. Xinhua's directors there lack formal commercial registration and have so far avoided labor lawsuits.

"This has allowed them to maintain their pattern of labor abuses," the source explained, adding that it is highly likely this misbehavior is happening in other Latin American countries and globally.