Media recall reporters after ban on coverage of hit-and-run case

Mainland media have been ordered to recall reporters from Baoding, Hebei, and banned from running further stories about the scandal surrounding the hit-and-run death of a Hebei University student.

Editors and reporters in Beijing and Guangzhou said yesterday they received the banning order from central propaganda authorities at 11pm on Wednesday and were forced to remove all related stories and commentaries from pages already on presses.

Dozens of mainland reporters sent to Baoding to cover the scandal were recalled by their newspapers yesterday.

Li Qiming , the son of a police chief in Baoding, was arrested on Sunday after allegedly hitting two female undergraduates when driving while drunk on the campus on October 16. One of the women died and Li sparked outrage across the mainland when he brushed off witnesses' accusations by saying, 'My father is Li Gang '.

More scandals involving his father and the university have been exposed in the past week. Internet users said the police chief could have at least five luxury villas and apartments in Baoding, something unaffordable on his civil service salary.

Hebei University has also been accused of banning its students, some of whom witnessed the accident and Li Qiming's response, from talking to the media.