For a nation not yet inured to lurid and senseless crime, a report that a former civil servant in central China kept six women enslaved in an underground bunker — and that he killed two of them — was shocking enough.

But perhaps almost as disturbing, at least to some readers, was that the journalist who exposed the crime more than two weeks after the suspect’s arrest was detained by security agents who accused him of revealing state secrets ….

“I was only thinking about how to make my story as accurate as possible and to satisfy the public’s right to know, but I soon discovered that I failed to address the most important issue — face,” wrote Mr. Ji, a reporter for Southern Metropolis Daily, one of the country’s most aggressively independent publications. “Before the truth becomes a state secret, the public and myself need answers ….”

In his posting on Friday, Mr. Ji said he stumbled upon the story this week after spending a few days in Luoyang to investigate the murder of a local television reporter. In his follow-up article, he said his questioners deemed the case a state secret because, he later learned, they feared that its revelation might tarnish Luoyang’s quest to become a “Civilized City” as part of a national competition.

A further blemish on the city’s name is the beating and abduction of a Luoyang tourist in Beijing after he was mistaken for a petitioner. Six officials have been punished following the incident, according to Xinhua.

Update: Shanghaiist notes uncertainty surrounding Li Hao’s former occupation: “… while most Chinese sources say he was a firefighter, AFP reports he possibly worked for the city’s ‘technological supervision bureau.’”

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Post tags: detention, journalists, kidnapping, Luoyang, murder, rape, state secrets
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It seems that the chief reason for Zhao’s suspension is an article called “China Has Risen, We Must Say Goodbye to the Foreign Policy of Revolution” (中国要崛起，必须告别革命外交), which she wrote for a recent edition of the magazine [more from the SCMP]. This article is still available on a number of blogs and chatrooms, but has been deleted from most other sites. The original link at the Window on the South website now results in an error message.

China Media Project also translates the letter Zhao wrote to the magazine’s staff to announce her dimissal:

Dear Colleagues:

After a meeting yesterday I had already accepted a notice from the board [informing me] a termination was to be carried out and that [I was to] undergo self-examination. Beginning from today, I have already been released from all editorial work on this publication. The second half of the year is a crucial time for circulation and advertising for next year, and I already had many ideas and plans in place for the next few months, but none of these can now be done. Window on the South no longer requires my thoughts and consideration.

As to the “errors of political guidance” (政治导向错误) represented in the article “China Has Risen, We Must Say Goodbye to the Foreign Policy of Revolution” (中国要崛起，必须告别革命外交), I naturally see this in a different way [from authorities], but clearly right now there is not an atmosphere or opportunity for the discussion of issues on the basis of facts and principles. As the writer of this piece and as the editorial head (采编中心主任), I feel deeply sorry for the negative impact this piece has had on this publication, but magazine publishing has its own process and I can only take on the responsibility I am meant to take on. They way things are now being handled, heaping all of the burdens on the writer and on the publisher who has no direct connection to the article, magnifying the problem as a question of principle, targeting people rather than issues and selectively and brashy handling this matter — clearly, this is something I cannot countenance.

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Post tags: journalists, media censorship, nanfeng chuang, press freedom
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Mr. Qi was originally detained after he wrote a series of articles in the state-run media detailing corruption among local party officials in the city of Tengzhou. The articles included an expose into the construction of a lavish government building and the beating of a female employee who was late for work.

Less than two weeks after the articles were published, Mr. Qi was detained by the police and, according to relatives, subjected to 11 months of physical and psychological abuse by members of the Tengzhou Public Security Bureau. They said his time in prison was marked by repeated torture, beatings by other inmates and hard labor in a prison coal mine.

According to the organization Human Rights in China, the authorities decided to prolong Mr. Qi’s detention after he told the Tengzhou mayor and other top officials he planned to continue his anticorruption work after his release.

The Committee to Protect Journalists provides further information on Qi’s case:

Less than three weeks before the completion of his four-year prison term, a court in Shandong province sentenced Qi to a further eight years in jail, according to New York-based advocacy group Human Rights in China and Radio Free Asia. Qi’s wife, Jiao Xia, told Radio Free Asia the charges were still in retaliation for Qi’s reporting prior to his 2007 arrest, which exposed local corruption.

Human Rights in China, citing an online article by Qi’s lawyer, Li Xiaoyuan, said the court sentenced him a second time on June 9 for his original charge of extortion and blackmail. They added a separate charge of stealing advertising revenue from a former employer, China Security Produce News. Li’s article says local authorities informed Qi in May it had new evidence against him, prompting the latest trial–in which he felt Qi’s guilt was already decided. “I felt we were just going through the motions,” Li writes. Qi will serve a total 12 years.

“Qi Chonghuai’s harsh new sentence underscores that Chinese the legal system is being abused to prevent reporting,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia program coordinator. “The release of some Chinese journalists does not change the fact that they should never have been behind bars, and could face harassment at home.”

Also last week, Zhang Jianjing, editor of China Economic Times, was transferred to a different publication, shortly following the closure of the newspaper’s investigative team led by Wang Keqin.

“Yes, that’s right,” Zhang replied when asked to confirm reports from sources close to the paper that he was being transferred to the China Economic Yearbook under the same cabinet-level research body ….

Sources close to the paper said that Zhang’s transfer and the shut-down of Wang’s team were definitely linked, but that Zhang would likely not lose seniority with the move.

“The fact that there was a lot of news released that revealed the truth under the leadership of Wang Keqin had a lot to do with [Zhang's transfer],” said the source, who declined to be named.

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Post tags: Committee to Protect Journalists, corruption, human rights in china, investigative journalism, journalists, journalists arrested, Shandong, Wang Keqin
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I arrived in Anshun today [July 28th, 2011] at 10am, investigating the widely circulated [story] on the Internet [of] “chengguan officials strangle handicapped vendor to death, drawing thousands of onlookers.” While I was doing an interview at the scene in the company of the family members of Deng Qiguo, the deceased [vendor], several unknown men approached, seemingly hostile. I was very vigilant, immediately put away my recorder, stopped the interview and got up to leave. A man asked me: “Which media are you from?” I wasn’t sure about their identity and claimed that I wasn’t from the media.

Then I asked them, “Who are you? The public security?” They didn’t answer. As I got up to leave, four or five men closed in, and one of them rushed over to grab my cell phone. I ran, holding the phone to my breast and was grabbed around the neck. They closed in to grab my phone. The three family members of the deceased came to protect me. I was nailed to the ground, one man pushed down my head on the ground with his leg, making me unable to move. I yelled “Help!” There were many onlookers. I called out, asking them to call the police. A family member of the deceased kneeled down on the ground, also asking them to help save me, but maybe the onlookers didn’t know the truth, nobody helped out.

Soon, the men pulled my arms and carried me to an old mini van and grabbed my phone. Then some pushed me into the van. I struggled
desperately. I had no idea who they were. They beat and pinched me while carrying me into the van, ignoring the onlookers. I continued to struggle. At this point, I suddenly felt my temple being punched violently three times. I almost lost consciousness. Unable to keep struggling, I was easily stuffed into the van.

After I barely regained my consciousness, I saw there was a police officer in uniform next to me. When I saw the officer, frankly, I laughed. I don’t even know why I laughed. It’s a complicated feeling. If they had said they were the police and showed me their card, I would cooperate. But I never thought I would be put in the van like this.

I wanted to look at the young officer’s number. He noticed and peeled it off immediately. I laughed again, “Why be afraid of people taking down your number while [you] police are working?” When we arrived at the Xixiu district PSB bureau, my bag, recorder and cell phone were nowhere to be found, and I lost my shoes.

While getting out of the van, I said to the two officers who “detained” me, “Could you give me some dignity, and let me put on my shoes?” Instead, I was carried barefoot to the fifth floor by them. The door was closed. I was controlled by three men in the hallway. Their skill at “detaining” people was very professional, making it impossible to struggle.

After a while, maybe because I had struggled too hard, or maybe it was too hot, and my heart has always been weak, I felt gradually that my body was getting tense, my consciousness frail, and I was short of breath. I begged the two officers to take me to a hospital, but they said: “Stop pretending. We have seen too many people like you. You’re young, how could you possibly have heart disease?” Then I lay on the ground, hands still held by the officers. I asked them to set free one of my hands to [let me] pound my heart — rejected. I asked for water — rejected. At that time I understood why some people “suddenly died” in police hands.

I can’t remember how long I had been lying there. Every minute, every second, seemed so long for me. Later, another police officer came. I cooperated on everything. I told them where I’m from, gave them my press card, ID card and even passport. They took me to a room on the third floor and then started to verify my identity. I asked to make a call to the head of my newspaper, but they didn’t allow it. I went to the bathroom, also followed by someone.

It was about 3 when I arrived at the public security bureau, and there was still no response at 5. I said, “You have been verifying for two hours, yet still no result. Isn’t it too inefficient?” They replied, “We are indeed inefficient. It’s legal to keep you for 24 hours.” I asked the officer, “Since you said it, tell me what my status is? A criminal suspect?” He did not answer.

It was not until about 6 that an official of Xixiu district’s propaganda department came. I was “released” and allowed to make phone calls. Then they were going to take me to a hospital to check for injuries. I said, “The public security officers took me here like this. I won’t leave until you give me an explanation.” Afterwards, an official of Anshun city’s propaganda department also came to persuade me. I raised three demands: “First, the Xixiu district public security bureau issues a written apology for me; second, my two bags were broken, pay for my bags; and, police inform me on the Deng Qiguo investigation.” The propaganda official promised.

But at 8, a head of the city’s public security bureau came and claimed that he hurried over within five minutes after he received the phone call. At first he explained to me that, when the police enforce the law normally, if anything like this happens, they should be locked up first, not me. But because of the mass incident, they were taking “abnormal law enforcement measures,” which are allowed by the public security’s regulation. I asked for the detailed articles.

Then the head said the men who took me are from “internal security” and can’t reveal their identity to the public, therefore can’t come to apologize to me in person. On behalf of them, the head would apologize for their “rude behavior” when they were enforcing the law.

The matter ended like this. I didn’t raise any excessive demands. Now I still have bruises all over my arms and neck.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: attacks on journalists, journalists, police violence, press freedom, riots
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Journalists have alleged that police at the scene unnecessarily used pepper spray against reporters covering the march. The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association chairwoman, Mak Yin-ting, complained in a letter sent to Police Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung, news reports said, that police used pepper spray against at least 19 journalists, including three reporters who were sprayed directly in the face and eyes. The journalists’ group is demanding a police investigation. “At a time when freedom of speech and assembly and the rights of a free press are under serious attack by Chinese security forces just over the border, it’s essential for the Hong Kong government to demonstrate a strong commitment to the defense of those same rights and freedoms in Hong Kong,” [Human Rights Watch's Asia advocacy director, Sophie] Richardson said ….

Human rights lawyers and civil society activists in Hong Kong have in recent years expressed increasing concern about a perceived lower official tolerance for dissent in the territory. Such concerns have been exacerbated by Hong Kong immigration authorities’ denial of entry to high-profile critics of China’s human rights record including the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protest leader Wang Dan. In its most recent annual report, released on July 11, the Hong Kong Journalists Association noted that “The trend for the government, and in particular the police, to take a harsher line against protesters has continued in [2011].”

The Economist puts the July 1st protest in context:

On July 1st 2003 half a million people took to the streets of Hong Kong, forced the government to give up on a reviled law and ended the career of the territory’s chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa. This is not a Tung Chee-hwa moment, but the kettle is boiling again. On July 1st throngs of angry Hong Kong people rallied between Victoria Park and the government buildings in Central—more than 200,000, according to organisers—shouting, singing, whistling and waving banners demanding democratic rights, great and small. It was the largest popular demonstration on Chinese territory in several years. The people of Hong Kong, so often quiescent, are angry again: at their local government and at meddling by the national authorities in faraway Beijing.

On the next business day, July 4th, the government blinked, postponing a controversial revision to Hong Kong’s electoral law, which would have banned by-elections for vacated seats in the Legislative Council (Legco). The government had wanted to do this to prevent its opponents from repeating a stunt from last year, when they engineered by-elections to improvise a kind of straw poll on democracy itself ….

The delay may cool passions, but not for long. The underlying issue of suffrage in Hong Kong is becoming more divisive as the tenure of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the current chief executive, draws to a close. This July marks the start of Mr Tsang’s last year in office. In 2012 a carefully selected committee of 1,200 members—0.017% of the population—will choose his replacement.

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Post tags: Donald Tsang, Hong Kong, human rights watch, journalists, legco, Tiananmen Square, Tung Chee-hwa
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Sunday’s report drew on a pool of 343 investigative reporters working for mainland newspapers and magazines. Some 84 percent of investigative reporters are male, 76 percent are 35 years old or younger and 50 percent have been working in the field for between six and eight years, the report found.

“Some local authorities and special interest groups have become more adept at interfering with and obstructing investigative reporters,” Zuo Zhijian, director of the feature department of the Guangzhou-based 21st Century Herald’s Shanghai office, told the Global Times Monday.

Low incomes, heavy workloads and risks associated with the job, which include physical harm, have also made many choose either to quit or move to other beats, said Zuo, who has worked as an investigative reporter for nearly 10 years.

Only 13 percent of those questioned believe they will stay in the field for up to five more years, while 40 percent have decided not to pursue the career, the report found.

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Post tags: investigative journalism, journalists, media conditions, press freedom
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A good strategy is to check in to a hotel hours away from our final destination, so police officers don’t necessarily make a connection between our arrival and that area’s news story. That also gives us the opportunity to set out before dawn and hopefully get to our interview by mid-morning before most people would spot a TV crew in the neighborhood.

Depending on whether the family or person we’re visiting has nosy neighbors, our team can get quickly reported to local officials who then dispatch a team to investigate. You might wonder why anyone would do such a thing to someone they know. I don’t understand it myself, though I suspect it’s a combination of just how the state has always operated, what people have been taught to do, a historical distrust of foreigners, and finally — I do wonder about the legacy of the Cultural Revolution and the habit of tattling as a show of loyalty to the Communist Party and to the community.

In any case, we’ve nicknamed such men who show up “the Black Audis,” after the vehicles they drive. I don’t know why government officials here love Audis so much, but they do. Audis are almost synonymous with them. I hate looking up to see one of these vehicles appearing around the corner — it usually means our filming will be delayed — if not permanently over. And our opportunity to provide a report to viewers — gone.

Sometimes men show up but don’t do anything to stop us. It is against the law in China to obstruct foreign journalists from reporting freely. This was set out in a directive signed by Premier Wen Jiabao. Government officials therefore have come up with creative ways to make reporting difficult and circumvent the central government’s rules without technically breaking the law. They might hire local boys to intimidate our team. By sub-contracting out intimidation to non-uniformed groups, there’s no proof the government is behind any reporting interference.

ABC (Australia) reporter Stephen McDonell filmed his encounter when he and his film crew confronted men who had been following him on reporting trips (via Shanghaiist):

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Post tags: foreign correspondents, journalists, press freedom, thugs
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Family and colleagues have been unable to reach Caijing magazine journalist Zhang Jialong since the evening of April 28, according to Radio France Internationale. He was believed to have gone for a “talk” with Beijing police, but no notice of formal detention has been issued, RFI reported. Interrogations are informally referred to as “chatting” or “drinking tea” with police or security officials. The Global Post website posted a link to an online missing notice issued by Zhang’s family. Zhang, a 23-year-old intern, had reported on a contaminated milk activist, Zhao Lianhai, and on Ai, the notice said. Zhang had also actively discussed recent detentions on his Twitter account, according to RFI.

Freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker Wen Tao has been missing and believed detained since April 3, when he was taken away by officials in plainclothes shortly after Ai. Wen, a former Global Times journalist and also an active Twitter user, had been documenting Ai’s work; his whereabouts and legal status are unknown, according to international news reports.

“The disappearance of two journalists who were reporting on Ai Weiwei and other Chinese activists is deeply concerning,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. “We fear they are the latest victims of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to stifle the flow of independent information.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Caijing, Committee to Protect Journalists, detention, drinking tea, Global Times, journalists, Wen Tao, Zhao Lianhai
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“I think sometimes I want to change nationality to be a better journalist,” he told me that evening in Beijing over ma po tofu.

His appraisal of his career so far as a journalist in China — brimming at once with earnestness and cynicism (a contradiction not uncommon, somehow, in many fields in China) — has stayed with me. Over cheap bijou, he shared his exploits covering illegal border crossings in Burma and sneaking into North Korea (he had posed as a tourist, and brought his wife along for cover).

Alas, the resourcefulness and capacity for personal heroism among some, not all, Chinese reporters too rarely shows through in the final published product. The censor’s red pen is hardly the only obstacle. Equally powerful is the appointment system for top personnel. The government designates the editor-in-chief of every newspaper — sometimes it’s someone with no interest in the position per se, simply a bureaucrat on his way from being vice-mayor of one city to another. Among other things, this means there’s little hope for young stars to rise and envision themselves as leaders. Eventually, the best and brightest, the would-be reformers, drop away.

In recent months, Yang’s aspirations have shifted. Having butted up against the low pay and fact that he’ll never advance to the top based on the caliber of his work, he is looking for another career.

“The track has ended,” he told me. “There is nowhere forward to go.” His eyes, as ever, looked big and round, but now somehow dimmer

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Post tags: journalists, media conditions, press freedom
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The columnist, Chang Ping, said he was forced out because his bosses were “under pressure” from government propaganda authorities.

The executive editor, Zhuang Shenzhi, said that the publisher had decided not to extend Mr. Chang’s contract. “The paper thought some of his work was inappropriate,” he explained said in a telephone interview late Thursday.

The authorities in China commonly dismiss reporters and editors who defy censors.

Mr. Chang, 42, has a reputation for writing about some of the most politically sensitive topics, including democracy, media censorship, the failures of government policy and Tibet. His commentaries appeared in Southern Weekend and Southern Metropolis Weekly, both of which are published by the Southern Daily Group.

Read more by and about Chang Ping and his recent troubles at the Southern News Group via CDT.

Update: See also a report from the Guardian:

Zhang has repeatedly been punished for tackling sensitive issues and was banned from writing columns for the Southern Weekend and Southern Metropolis Daily newspapers last July.

“Now I have ‘been resigned’. It is not just because of one particular article, it is because I have always written critical articles,” he told the Guardian today.

“Many times I have been told not to write and that if I agreed I would be able to get more benefits than now, but I refused. The reason the paper is giving is that ‘pressure from above is too great’.”

He added: “The whole media environment is changing. It has become tighter since the Nobel peace prize.”

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chang Ping, journalists, press freedom, Southern Media Group, Zhang Ping
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