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thanks to everyone who helped! this little project is coming along nicely. It turns out that quite a few of the journalists taken on state-sponsored trips to Xinjiang in 2019 are not actual journalists. moreover, many were *not* convinced of the official narrative https://twitter.com/BadChinaTake/status/1350949816306642946
Chesnekov's view is shared by another Russian journo I tracked down as well as an Israeli journa from a pro-Netanyahu paper: yes, they're obviously suspicious and probably prisons, no, we don't believe what the Chinese are telling us. but that's ok bc they're fighting terrorists!
state media in their coverage of these events clearly have a preference for quoting the most positive journalists, which is why it's so hard to find the journalists who go there and have negative impressions (see bottom half of this ugly and badly formatted spreadsheet)
oh final thing, if you speak arabic and have five minutes to kill, two arabic speakers so far have been unable to find any evidence of these people highlighted existing/being actual reporters, despite having been quoted in PRC state media. if you find them, I'll love you 4ever
a very cranky tankie has informed me that one of the above people DOES exist and has written about Xinjiang, but is choosing to own me so hard by not telling me which one :'( somebody help me! https://twitter.com/MscAmir1/status/1354429021891801090?s=20
it turns out they will do the research for you with enough goading.
