Call for Chinese authorities to free reporter detained over ‘false’ stock market crash story
Press freedom groups said China’s leaders were seeking scapegoats for the collapse of a stock market bubble that was engineered by government policies
Chinese authorities have been urged to release a reporter accused of spreading false information on the country’s stock market meltdown.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which made the demand, called the detention of Wang Xiaolu the latest intimidation of journalists by President Xi Jinping’s administration.
On Monday, a state broadcaster showed Wang, a reporter for privately owned financial magazine Caijing, confessing that he had written a false report that “caused such a great damage to the country and stock investors”.
He was held along with Liu Shufa, an official at the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
It also reported that four senior officials at the brokerage Citic Securities had also been detained for alleged inside trading.
Press freedom groups said China’s leaders were seeking scapegoats for the collapse of a stock market bubble that was engineered by government policies.