Editorials

Reality bites

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-31 08:08

Police in Suichang county, Zhejiang province, put an Economic Observer reporter on an online wanted list after a listed firm failed to bribe or intimidate him into withholding a report. His four-part report alleges that senior officials struck fraudulent deals during the reform of what was then a major State enterprise.

The reporter was accused of "damaging business credit".

The incident took a dramatic turn on Thursday when a higher police bureau declared the arrest order "procedurally inappropriate".

But this is not the end of the story, and it should not be. The higher public security bureau has vowed to probe the company's accusation. This is essential, because too many questions need to be answered.

While Suichang police want the reporter to disclose his sources, we believe it is the least important part at this point. Apart from sources' right to privacy and a reporter's obligation to protect them, the crucial question here is the authenticity of the report.

We are fully in favor of a thorough probe because it has to be established whether the reporter is innocent or guilty, because investigative reporting should get its legitimate breathing space (which is important for our fight against corruption), because of the high stakes (billions of yuan of public money) involved and because we have to know which is true: the "internal conclusions" of the company's "competent authorities" or the fraud as alleged by the reporter.

Since police stand discredited for jumping to the defense of the officials, we have to know whether indeed there is a police-official nexus.

Police, on their part, have to explain why they sought to arrest the "whistleblower" even in the absence of criminal evidence, instead of starting a probe into the reported fraud.

And if, just if, the probe proves the reporter to be right, we will have enough reasons to haul up the "competent authorities" for their "internal conclusions".

The case may be more complex than people think. Whatever happens next, we hope a case of "business credit" will not evolve into one of government credit, which cannot be measured in terms of money.

(China Daily 07/31/2010 page5)