CHINA MEDIA SUPPORTS REPORTER WHO EXPOSED CORRUPTION BY A ‘LOCAL EMPEROR.’
January 13th 2008 23:42
A vigorous media response has been generated this month in China, reacting to attempts by Zhang Zhiguo, the communist party chief of Xifeng county in north-eastern Liaoning province, to arrest and haul off to his county a Beijing journalist he claims libelled him.
The Australian reported that Zhang, accused by a businesswoman in Xifeng of corruption, was outraged when Zhu Wenna, a reporter with Faren magazine, part of the government-controlled Legal Daily group, followed up her complaints and detailed his heavy-handed measures and illegal dealings.
So he sent police 900 kilometers to apprehend Zhu at her office. She refused to accompany them, and her magazine backed her up. Then, once the account of the police foray was published, the tide turned, and China's websites have since been full of attacks on Zhang. Among four pages of critical commentaries on the website of People's Daily, the national party mouthpiece, Zhang was called a "local emperor".
Buckley had been investigating a claim about an illicit detention centre in Beijing where people coming from Nanyang city in Henan province to present petitions about grievances to the central government are held and forcibly sent home.
His bag with notes, a mobile phone and a camera were taken, and he was threatened with death. Eventually, after he was able to call the Foreign Ministry, he was released and his belongings returned.
He made a formal complaint, but has heard nothing about it since.
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