The perils of investigative journalism in China

Note: This blog post also ran in the Society of Professional Journalism’s “Journalism and the World” blog. Click here to see the original post.

In the previous post, I included a link to the EastSouthWestNorth blog, which translates some of the more interesting stories from Chinese newspapers into English.

Certainly puts the business reporting that I do into perspective.

From recent posts:

The Fenyang Mining Disaster (04/07/2007) (Shanxi Daily)

On April 2 afternoon, the reporter came to the Sankeng mine again. He was jostled by unidentified men who threatened to bury him and his driver in a ditch. Out of safety considerations, the reporter left the scene. Then a crazy car case occurred with a black Santana.

CCTV Reporters Assaulted in Qinhuangdao City (04/07/2007) (NetEase)

According to Wang Liping, at around 9:20am, the three were filming from a bridge overlooking an iron factory at Zhugezhuang town, Changli county. They were blocked by a white van in front and a black Honda sedan in the back. More than ten identified men then dragged the three of them out of the car and took away their camera, mobile telephone, car keys and driver license.

(Apple Daily)

Yesterday morning, was filming the rule-breaking, polluting iron factories in Zhugezhuang town, Changli county, Qinhuangdao city. Suddenly, a white van stopped the progress of their vehicle. Then another black sedan arrived. More than twenty persons dragged the three CCTV reporters out of the car. Worse yet, some of the men dragged the female reporter to the river side (more than 10 meters deep) and attempted to throw her into the river. When a male reporter attempted to come to her assistance, he was kicked several times in the chest. During the tussle, the female reporter was injured in the hands, face and waist. During the beating, the men were yelling: 弄死一個是一個 (One dead is one down).

Signing off in Shanghai – where the scariest thing that ever happens to me is filing tax forms

— Maria