On Thursday last week the Guardian carried the following note in its daily corrections column: “In a report headed ‘They beat him until he was lifeless‘: How democracy activist in China’s new frontline was left for dead after a brutal attack by a uniformed mob (front page, October 10) we said that Lu Banglie [a pro-democracy activist] was so injured in the beating that ‘his eye [lay] out of its socket’ and ‘the ligaments in his neck were broken’. Subsequent reports have made it clear that Mr Lu’s injuries were not as serious as had been stated. In particular, a report headed Chinese activist vows to continue, despite beating, page 3, October 12, stated, after an interview with Mr Lu: ‘Although he was in pain from his neck, it was not broken and his eye did not come out of its socket.'” I added a note saying, in effect, that the huge disparity between these reports would be the subject of this column today.
See also Melinda Liu’s commentary “Guilt By Association” in Newsweek, Rebecca MacKinnon’s comments on her blog RConversation and “An Activist’s Tale” from Time.
