Google – AFP, Agence France-Presse, October 24, 2013
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| A chinese man walks by a newspapers stall in Beijing, China on October 24. (EPA Photo/Rolex Dela Pena) |
Beijing.
China’s media regulator has vowed to protect “lawful reporting rights,” state
media said, in a rare official intervention over press freedom after a
journalist was detained by police.
Chen
Yongzhou, a journalist with the New Express tabloid based in the southern city
of Guangzhou, was held on Friday by police on “suspicion of damaging business
reputation” after he wrote 15 articles on “financial problems” at Zoomlion, a
partly state-owned construction machinery manufacturer.
The New
Express on Wednesday ran a full-page editorial on its front page to call for
Chen’s release, in a rare example of media defying authorities that drew an
outpouring of sympathy and support online and among its press peers.
China’s
General Administration of Press and Publication, Radio, Film and Television
(GAPPRFT) said it was “highly concerned” by Chen’s detention, the China Press
and Publishing Journal, which is run by the agency, reported late Wednesday.
The agency
has “coordinated with relevant authorities” to ensure the case was handled “in
a just and appropriate manner,” the report said, citing an unnamed GAPPRFT
official.
GAPPRFT is
a key part of the Chinese government’s control mechanisms over the media, and
issues the credentials all Chinese journalists need to be able to work.
“The
GAPPRFT firmly supports the media to carry out normal reporting activities and
firmly protects the justified and lawful reporting rights of journalists,” the
report quoted the official as saying.
But the
official added it opposed any “abuse of reporting rights” and hoped all media
outlets would cover the incident in an “objective and rational way,” according
to the newspaper.
In the
published reports Chen accused Zoomlion of providing fraudulent accounting
figures such as inflated profit data.
Zoomlion is
about 20 percent owned by the state, and is listed on the Hong Kong and
Shenzhen stock exchanges with a total market capitalisation of more than $8
billion.
It is one
of China’s biggest manufacturers of construction machinery, such as bulldozers.
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