Avoid needless suffering

There have been a lot of reports both on TV and in newspapers recently in which journalists went undercover to expose illegal activities.

As a journalist myself, I must first admit that I have also done work in this way. And like many of my colleagues, I have come to identify it as an indispensable tool to obtain otherwise out-of-reach information. That was until I heard about the case of a driver in Shanghai who had been ensnared and wrongly accused by local traffic police of operating an illegal taxi.

The two issues are different in purpose as those traffic authorities were trying to trap innocent people to meet work targets, while reporters seek to unveil the truth.