中国媒体聚焦铲除腐败

January 31, 2007
Killing Puts Focus on Corruption in Chinese News Media
ByHOWARD W. FRENCH
SHANGHAI, Jan. 30 — LanChengzhang sat in a car outside the office of a mining company while acolleague ventured inside to make inquiries.
It was his first month of work with the newspaper, and he haddecided to take on what anyone in the area knew could be a mostdangerous subject, the illegal coal mines that proliferate in the sootyhill country of Shanxi Province.
Within minutes, a band of men armed with lengths of pipe and othercrude weapons set upon him, beating him so badly that within a fewhours he succumbed to his injuries. Though severely beaten, hiscolleague from the China Trade News survived to tell the tale.
Attacks against journalists are not uncommon in China, even ifdeaths are rare. But in ways that few could have expected, the killingon Jan. 11 of this untested reporter for an obscure publication hasbecome a watershed event, with reporters and editors around the countryseeing in the murky contours of the case a cautionary tale for theirbooming but deeply troubled profession.
That Mr. Lan’s death has become a national event was helped in no small measure by China’s leader,Hu Jintao, who in an unusual statement a few days afterward demanded that justice be done.
But it also highlighted the culture of corruption that manyjournalists acknowledge pervades the industry, particularly thepractice among some reporters of demanding money from subjects to avoiddamaging articles.
Mr. Hu, who has spoken often of the need for the government tostrengthen its control over the news media, has been seen as anythingbut a friend of journalists. Given that, many here said, and afterseveral days of intense commentary about the killing in theinternational news media and on Chinese blogs and Web sites, Mr. Hu mayhave been moved to protect his country’s image.
“Hu Jintao is very much concerned about China’s internationalimage,” said Zhan Jiang, dean of journalism at the Youth PoliticsInstitute in Beijing. “Since this incident has been widely reportedboth at home and overseas, he had to do something.”
Inside the Chinese news media, introspection over the killing of Mr.Lan, 35, has been unusually forthright, mixing criticism of thegovernment with harsh self-examination. Beijing is condemned forlimiting the scope of honest, aggressive journalism, and thejournalists themselves are condemned, indeed by themselves, for givingin to corruption as a professional way of life.
“This kind of control and degeneration are inseparable,” said ZhangPing, a veteran reporter at Southern Metropolis magazine. “The controldims the hopes one has for a career in journalism, and many reporters,like people at Xinhua, don’t have any honorable feelings from being ajournalist. They get no rewards the normal way and discover that inChina only lie-telling can bring you income.” Xinhua is the maingovernment news agency.
Huang Liangtian, who was recently dismissed as editor of Bai Xingmagazine because of its probing investigative style, was even morecaustic in his assessment.
“China basically doesn’t have any journalists in the real sense,” hesaid, dismissing the hairsplitting that many have engaged in overwhether Mr. Lan was properly credentialed or not. “Everybody is part ofthe machine, a propagandist for the party’s policy.”
In fact, the scope for reporting has expanded significantly in thelast decade, clearly worrying the government. But along with theexplosion in the number of titles have come strong commercialpressures, bringing about what many describe as a compulsion to mixnews gathering and advertising.
Many reporters say they are given revenue quotas they must meet by selling news coverage to the subjects they write about.
The issue of that sort of corruption has emerged as a major subtextof the discussion of Mr. Lan’s death, albeit with bitter disagreementover the facts. In Datong, the city where he was killed, he was quicklylabeled an imposter, the implication being that he had visited anillegal coal mine to shake down its owner, promising not to write abouthim in exchange for a payment. The city quickly threatened to start acampaign against “fake journalists.”
Mr. Lan’s newspaper has added little clarity to the picture. Whileacknowledging that he was employed there, the paper denied that he hadbeen assigned to write about illegal coal mines. It even declined todescribe him as a reporter, using the more ambiguous formulation ofmedia worker.
The police report about the killing said Chang Hanwen, the beatencolleague of Mr. Lan’s who had teamed up with him in the coal minereporting, had stated that Mr. Lan had promised that the mere displayof press credentials at the mine would produce “at least 1,000” yuan,about $130, in payoffs. But in a telephone interview, Mr. Changstrongly denied that. “I don’t know where they got that from,” he said.“When I saw it on a Web site, I was really mad.”
Amid this confusion and lacking any real evidence, a great manyjournalists seem to have concluded that Mr. Lan was indeed a swindler.
That rush to judgment, in turn, appears to reflect theirrecognition of the dismal state of their profession. In one interviewafter another, veteran reporters gave detailed anecdotes of pervasivecorruption in the industry.
“We have to admit that the public image of journalists isincreasingly depressed, and the causes for this should give all of usreason to reflect,” said Liu Wanyong, an investigative reporter withthe China Youth Daily, in Beijing.
“In 2005 I went to a courthouse Liaoning Province and said I am ajournalist, and the court official’s response was ‘Are you here on somecommercial business?’ ” Mr. Liu said. “I showed my papers, and theysaid, ‘Are you representing the plaintiff or the defendant?’ The factis they are used to seeing reporters who represent one side or another— usually whichever has the most money.”
Even as they acknowledge the industry’s low repute and the dangersthat often accompany their jobs, many journalists said they would stickwith the profession, which they see as the best hope for theircountry’s peaceful development.
Fan Youfeng, 38, a reporter with the Hebei Youth Daily, was chasedout of Henan Province after uncovering a scandal involving the handlingof a coal mining disaster there.
“I’ve already paid a high price for this job,” he said, recountinghow he had been forced to flee his previous newspaper. Asked what hewould do if his investigative work made him a target again, he said:“It doesn’t matter. China is big, and there’s got to be a place forsomeone with a conscience.”