Editors in strife over report on Liu Xiang cover-up
Five editors with the Nanjing-based have been suspended over the paper's critical coverage last week of the Liu Xiang injury cover-up, a rights group and local media sources said.
Editor-in-chief Chen Chaohui , deputy editor Yu Jiechen and three other editors were temporarily removed from their posts, but their final punishment is still unclear, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democracy said yesterday.
The , a free newspaper distributed on subway platforms, ran a front-page story on Thursday reporting that state broadcaster CCTV said nothing even though it knew the famed gold-medal-winning hurdler was nursing a strained Achilles tendon before his disastrous 110-metre heat in London.
"Liu Xiang knew, CCTV knew and leaders knew - only spectators waited foolishly to witness the moment of miracle," the paper said in a front-page headline that ran alongside a picture of Liu hobbling on the track.
Liu collapsed in pain after crashing into the first hurdle during the August 7 heat. CCTV anchor Yang Jian could be heard weeping as he described the scene. A senior editor on CCTV's Olympics broadcasting team later confirmed it had been gagged from revealing the truth.
Calls to the went unanswered yesterday. Chen was still listed as editor on the paper's website, but the Liu Xiang stories from Thursday could no longer be found.
