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Thursday, 27 November 2008
Half ‘Hush Money’ Journalists Were Fake
Half the dozens of so-called journalists demanding hush money from a mainland coal mine after a fatal accident in September were fake, state media said on Thursday.
Half the dozens of so-called journalists demanding hush money from a mainland coal mine after a fatal accident in September were fake, state media said on Thursday.
Some 28 people who blackmailed the coal mine in the guise of reporters were frauds, Xinhua news agency said, adding that in total 60 people had been punished and the vast majority of 319,300 yuan (HK$363,200) hush money had been paid back.
The pit accident killed one person in northern Shanxi province. The mine failed to report the death to the local government, the Beijing News said.
The mainland has the most dangerous coal-mining industry in the world. A total of 3,786 coal miners died in gas blasts, floodings and other accidents last year as companies, often flouting safety regulations, rush to feed demand from a booming economy.
“We are firmly against journalists accepting bribes and people posing as journalists,” the China Daily quoted Li Ruifeng, head of the Shanxi province bureau of press and publications, as telling a news conference on Wednesday.
Scams involving journalists and people posing as journalists are common in the mainland.
Authorities last year jailed four men who tried to blackmail a local official by threatening to write incriminating information about government abuse of power in land usage.
In January, a reporter for a Beijing-based newspaper was beaten to death by hired thugs during an investigation into an unlicensed coal mine in Shanxi.
Officials there said he lacked accreditation and suggested he may have been seeking payoffs.
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Half ‘Hush Money’ Journalists Were Fake
Reuters in Beijing
27 November 2008
Half the dozens of so-called journalists demanding hush money from a mainland coal mine after a fatal accident in September were fake, state media said on Thursday.
Some 28 people who blackmailed the coal mine in the guise of reporters were frauds, Xinhua news agency said, adding that in total 60 people had been punished and the vast majority of 319,300 yuan (HK$363,200) hush money had been paid back.
The pit accident killed one person in northern Shanxi province. The mine failed to report the death to the local government, the Beijing News said.
The mainland has the most dangerous coal-mining industry in the world. A total of 3,786 coal miners died in gas blasts, floodings and other accidents last year as companies, often flouting safety regulations, rush to feed demand from a booming economy.
“We are firmly against journalists accepting bribes and people posing as journalists,” the China Daily quoted Li Ruifeng, head of the Shanxi province bureau of press and publications, as telling a news conference on Wednesday.
Scams involving journalists and people posing as journalists are common in the mainland.
Authorities last year jailed four men who tried to blackmail a local official by threatening to write incriminating information about government abuse of power in land usage.
In January, a reporter for a Beijing-based newspaper was beaten to death by hired thugs during an investigation into an unlicensed coal mine in Shanxi.
Officials there said he lacked accreditation and suggested he may have been seeking payoffs.
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