Opinion | Rent-seeking by journalists will dent Chinese media's credibility
Hu Shuli says given the key role they play in society, reporters must keep their conduct honest no matter how difficult the working environment
The full facts of the dramatic arrest and subsequent confession of New Express reporter Chen Yongzhou are not yet known but there's no escaping the problem it revealed. The painful truth is that the case exposes the unforgivable practice of "rent-seeking" in Chinese journalism. Given the important role news media play in society, such corruption cannot be tolerated - even people who continue to speak up for Chen and the newspaper would agree with that.
Chen was arrested by Changsha police on October 18, and news of it emerged four days later. That night, New Express posted a message of support on its weibo feed, and ran front-page stories calling for his release two days in a row.
Given the paper's government connections and some comments by officials in Beijing, the arrest seemed at first to be a mistake. But the twist came three days later: Chen appeared on CCTV and admitted to taking bribes of more than 500,000 yuan (HK$632,000) to fabricate a series of stories targeting construction machinery company Zoomlion.
CCTV's reporting of the story was rightly criticised for being less than fair, and the manner of Chen's arrest and the investigation and prosecution also raised questions of collusion. Some valid concerns include: the questionable conduct of the Hunan police officers, who arrived in a Zoomlion car to arrest Chen; the apparent neglect of Chen's right to legal counsel; the vagueness of the charges of "damaging [a company's] commercial reputation" that have been slapped on him; the fact that he is so far the only person to be prosecuted even though the case clearly involved his employer.
The murky chain of relations that led to the arrest must be thoroughly probed.
Public trust is the media’s best defence. And it cannot be credible without fair reporting
At its heart, however, the allegation exposes the dark side of Chinese journalism. That someone should abuse his journalist's right to report should pain all of us who work in the industry. However, worse harm is being done to the credibility of the media, which plays a major role in every society's development. The onus is on us media professionals to exercise discipline and keep our conduct honest.