A foreign TV crew covering the prevalence of AIDS in Central China has been beaten and robbed in the country's Henan Province, an official says.

A representative for Flemish public television VRT said Belgian journalist Tom Van de Weghe and several of his crew members were attacked by a dozen men while filming their HIV awareness footage, The Hollywood Reporter said Friday.

The unidentified representative alleged the men behind Thursday's attack were recruited by Chinese authorities in the province.

The media incident comes months after a CBS "60 Minutes" crew was attacked in the South China city of Shenzhen while gathering footage of toxic waste processing plant.

The Reporter said the attack on the VRT crew also comes in the wake of the implementation of a HIV awareness program created by Yahoo! China and the U.N. Development Program.

The program offers HIV prevention information to residents throughout China when they use online search engines, the U.S. publication said.