City officials in eastern China apologized to local journalists after authorities were shown pushing them and trying to obstruct reporting from the site of a deadly explosion, in a rare acknowledgment of state aggression against journalists.

The city of Sanhe, near Beijing, issued a public apology Thursday after authorities were shown harassing reporters from state broadcaster CCTV during a live broadcast near the site of a suspected gas leak explosion that killed seven and injured 27 on Wednesday.

Harassment of journalists — especially foreign reporters — is common in China but almost never acknowledged by the state.

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A statement on the city’s official website expressed "deep regret" over the treatment of the CCTV reporters and other media workers. It said authorities were trying to remove the journalists from the site because they were concerned about a potential gas leak.

"The poor communication skills of our frontline staff and their rough and simplistic methods caused misunderstandings among journalists and doubts among the public, resulting in a negative social impact," it said.

The incident, shown live during the midday newscast, was a rare off-script moment for China’s tightly controlled state media. Beijing regards media as propaganda tools and regularly issues directives about topics that are off-limits for coverage.

The All-China Journalists Association put out a statement defending the journalists’ rights to report from disaster sites. It fell short of explicitly condemning the Sanhe authorities’ actions.

China's harassment of journalists is often directed at foreign reporters. Earlier this month, a Dutch journalist and a camera operator were detained while reporting on a protest outside an investment bank in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Authorities shoved the journalist to the ground and used umbrellas to block the camera.

Foreign journalists are also often followed by plain-clothes police, especially when reporting from areas considered sensitive by the Chinese government, such as the western region of Xinjiang.

Such incidents are regularly condemned by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, a professional group.

But the Chinese Foreign Ministry, which is the point of contact for foreign journalists in the country, has never in recent memory publicly acknowledged or apologized for the harassment.

China is also the country with the most imprisoned journalists — 44 in 2023, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Over the past few years, China has also increasingly restricted journalists’ access to politicians and officials of any kind.

This year, Beijing canceled the annual news conference by the premier – a 30-year tradition that constituted one of the rare times a top Chinese leader took questions from journalists.

The Florida Legislature unanimously passed a bill that would allow police to immediately remove squatters — a departure from the lengthy court cases required in most states.

"It gives me a real feeling of positive hope that we still have the ability to discuss challenges in our society and work with our legislatures in a bipartisan way," Patti Peeples, a Sunshine State property owner who was barred from her own home after squatters refused to leave, told News4Jax.

The legislation, which passed both chambers earlier this month, would allow police to remove squatters without a lease authorized by the property owner and adds criminal penalties. Landlords, under the current law, typically have to wade through a long and expensive legal process to remove squatters.

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"Imagine for a moment that you leave from your day of serving the citizens of Florida as a senator and you return to your home," Peeples told the state Senate Criminal Justice Committee in February. "But when you walk in, there are strangers sitting on your sofa, watching your TV, eating your food."

"You ask who they are and what they are doing, and they tell you that they have rented this house and present you with a lease," she continued.

An advocacy group, Florida Rising, initially opposed the legislation, fearing landlords could abuse the measures to quickly boot legitimate tenants. But the group took a neutral position after amendments were added to protect legal occupants, a spokesperson told News4Jax.

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The bill, now headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk, would also allow wrongfully evicted tenants to sue to regain access and recover attorneys’ fees and damages.

Last year, it took weeks for the squatters in Peeples’ home to get evicted. They had produced a lease and claimed they were rental scam victims — a strategy the squatters used previously, court records show.

By the time they were ousted, Peeples’ house was left with thousands of dollars worth of damage.

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"I've had so many emotions," Peeples told Fox News in April. "I've had just intense anger, I have felt defeated, I felt wronged by the legal system, I felt wronged by the police system."

The squatters never faced criminal charges.

If the Florida legislation becomes law, intentionally presenting a phony lease would be designated as a misdemeanor, and selling or leasing someone else’s property would be a felony, as would causing more than $1,000 in property damage.

Flash Shelton, a handyman-turned-squatter hunter, recently told Fox News that squatting laws needed to become stricter so landlords could more easily boot illegal occupants. He pointed to Atlanta, where, according to the National Rental Home Council, around 1,200 homes have been taken over by squatters.

"If we were to criminalize it, that would enable us to send in the National Guard to sweep that whole neighborhood and get those 1,200 houses clear," Shelton told Fox News in February.