[中国新闻] 中国记者收贿成风？

日月光

记者的报导权，代表的不单只是将所知告知大众，还能从中获利？前年爆发的河南矿主与当地官员疑似联手对记者发放“封口费”，好隐瞒矿难一事，让在中国行之有年的记者红包文化浮出台面，不但社会广泛讨论，连外国媒体都专注到此议题。
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在中国，“有钱能使鬼推磨”，而有钱，也能买下对自己不利的消息。一般开诊所的，可能以金钱买下记者的发言权，要记者对诊所内的不法从事保持沈默；有点地位的人，也同样会给记者一些小惠，希望他们在报导中能坏话少说、好话多写。不过，更普遍的情况是，企业或政府机构以所谓的“封口费”来交换记者手中掌握的、对这些机构不利的情报。csuchen.de4 p' ?/ R  D! X, O+ Z) M6 A7 Q
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曾於2005年8月报导河南寄料地区所发生的记者集体收贿案件的《河南商报》，该报分管采编业务的总顾问马云龙表示，这类事件非常、非常频繁。该敲诈案曾牵连480名记者，这些记者被要求隐藏情报，同时收下了贿款。5 m& n  w7 L1 M1 A5 d: ?* q

& @3 T% J/ m) t; ?收贿文化与中国共产党严格控制新闻自由度有关。当记者探知某事件的真相，而官方又因政治因素禁止真相公开时，脑筋动得快又动得歪的记者，很难不将手中掌握的情报与自身利益联想在一起：为什麽不利用所知来赚钱呢？此外，在新闻管制严格的环境下，许多题材被禁止报导，当记者辛苦采访回来的稿子最後却无法登上版面，记者最初对新闻的热情被磨损，当现实一点的人发现封口费发放的文化时，便也不再坚持记者的道德操守、跨步加入大家排队领钱的队伍中。" s3 O3 ]- b2 ^# k/ M. r

& p9 m, t- w$ x. H9 D" ?/ g/ Z人在德国 社区此外，在“大家一起来”的行贿—收贿系统下，看出其中利益的当地官员，很自然地加入此行列，如果能以金钱换得记者的沈默，对官员们来说确实是笔值得的交易；甚至在此情况下产生了一批假记者，专行敲诈之实，虽然气愤，官员们却不敢得罪，有时，听闻消息的记者，还会千里迢迢大老远跑来领取红包，令人好气又好笑，但也看出了有人连一分钱都不放过的贪婪心态。
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2005年7月底，河南汝州市寄料镇一煤矿发生矿难，出现人员伤亡，矿主逃逸，消息遭封锁。8月中，矿难的消息泄漏，河南地区多家媒体记者以手机短信将讯息迅速传播出去，隔日下午，自称记者的人接二连三来到汝州市领取“遮口费”，保险箱的钱不够发放，寄料镇工业办官员想办法调度更多金钱，并依照所属媒体的大小级别，每人可领取100至1000元人民币不等的金额，最後共有100多家媒体480人，领走20万人民币，相当於25000美元的金额。$ X% T& `; T! s! e

" \/ s( A/ X% ]5 c# k; o- x3 n记者们在矿难时总能收取小惠的原因，与各级政府对矿场安全要求严格，但矿难又不断发生的情况有关。矿难依死亡人数分为一般、重大、特大或特别重大事故，一旦发生矿难，当地的领导干部难辞其咎，不是受到处分、记过，便是免职，此外，首当其冲的矿主也可能在矿难後遭到证照取消的惩处，再也无法采矿。
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/ N2 X% |+ h! D! k; _& B因此，矿主、地方官员在考量自身利益後，发现握有第一手情报并拥有极大影响力的记者，是他们最应该“关照”的对象，官员与矿主於是联合起来，提供封口费给记者，也剥夺了大众知的权力。人在德国 社区% \0 ?! q/ [% J% V* l0 Y) z

7 a0 M& J5 E% A* z+ Z2 X6 S0 M( q不过，《河南商报》的记者范友峰却不愿抛弃记者的报导权，他将河南汝州市官员门发放矿难红包一事公开披露，并揭发了多年来在新闻界沿袭的『红包潜规则』，报导刊登后，原已做好挨骂准备的《河南商报》，意外受到同行与外界的赞扬，只是，《河南商报》的高层却不表支持，范友峰的现场录音资料被命令交出，且河南省委宣传部针对此事所成立的调查小组也宣布，经过调查，记者的报导不实，他所披露的只是『官员瞎说的，不是事实』。人在德国 社区# w: m( y3 z! k+ k8 T

) \9 c& N& e5 U9 H% j1 m) j6 f7 e虽然马云龙质疑，但因范友峰提不出证据，现场领取红包者的签名簿也不知去向，最后，马云龙向报社提出辞呈，范友峰也遭到惩处，而死亡人数则从未被公布。csuchen.de( L6 ~/ Q( P+ r. \  J, E
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马云龙说，“这类事件被媒体报导後，有损当地政府的形象，因此他们总是隐瞒。”

日月光

Blackmailing By Journalists In China Seen As 'Frequent' # T5 K- ]! b" Z8 F
Washington Post Foreign Service; z  L, P# a/ w: d2 L0 i
Thursday, January 25, 2007; Page A01 csuchen.de0 m, W% H# Q1 w4 t# S/ d6 k  F! Y0 p
SHENZHEN, China -- At 9 p.m. in a dark Shenzhen parking lot, Bai Xiuyu handed over a plain brown envelope containing 15,000 Chinese yuan, the equivalent of nearly $2,000, in what was supposed to be a discreet blackmail payment to a local reporter.
$ {( Z$ |1 D( u1 ^Hidden in Bai's car, Gou Hua, Shenzhen bureau chief for the Southern Metropolitan Daily, watched the scene unfold and recorded the transaction with his cellphone camera. His interest was more than journalistic; the reporter receiving the payoff was Zhou Yu, a 29-year-old newcomer to Gou's own bureau.
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+ s8 [; y, \8 k7 DTo his consternation, what Gou saw the evening of Sept. 21 was another instance of the blackmail journalism metastasizing through China's news media. Bai's money was supposed to buy silence on alleged wrongdoing at her health clinic in this southern Chinese city. But more generally, journalists and officials say, Chinese reporters are demanding such hush money with increasing regularity from businesses and government agencies in exchange for the withholding of unfavorable news.人在德国 社区0 M7 }+ u7 s+ |# s/ K  h- m/ b4 V
"It's very, very frequent," said Ma Yunlong, an editor whose newspaper exposed an instance of extravagant extortion in central Henan province in 2005. Ma said the case involved 480 reporters and others pretending to be reporters who asked for "shut-up fees" to keep news of a mine flood out of the public eye.
/ y+ Y: V8 H% J4 Y% oIn many ways, blackmail journalism grew naturally out of a system in which Communist Party censors control the news rigorously, barring reports that could be seen as unfavorable to the party or contrary to the government's political goals. If the ruling party distorts the news for political reasons, blackmailing reporters have concluded, why wouldn't they do it themselves for financial reasons?
% W! u, W9 ]# }" T2 rIn addition, local party officials, long used to manipulating information, have been complicit in the payoff system when it suits their needs. In the everybody-does-it atmosphere, even non-reporters have found ways to get in on the take by posing as journalists.( v; T- Q) Y" y: f
After the August 2005 mine disaster, for instance, reporters and their friends in Henan province dispatched a flurry of cellphone messages as soon as they heard the news -- not because they were eager to report on it, but because they knew local officials would be eager to hush it up.人在德国 社区1 D, ?3 q4 M8 v
By the time Fan Youfeng of the Henan Business News arrived at the mine, in a village in Jiliao county, local officials said they had already given money to so many reporters and phony reporters that the coffers were dry. But still more people showed up, Fan wrote, and the officials sought more cash, pressing the mine owners to chip in.
/ Z6 s6 T- P2 v1 u  t" M! [人在德国 社区Journalists and poseurs lined up to get their handouts, he said, with some pushing and jumping the queue. Over several days, the extortionists carried away 200,000 yuan, or more than $25,000, he reported, quoting officials and a list signed by those who got the cash.
7 T5 H7 e- r) q$ d( }Encouraged by Ma, his editor, Fan wrote a story for the Henan Business News about what had happened. It was the first open discussion of what had become a widespread if secretive practice, Ma said with a note of pride.9 ^0 e& A* G3 R0 P; b
As a result, however, an official from the central government propaganda department visited from Beijing and accused Ma of publishing an "inappropriate" and "false" story. The newspaper was suspended for a month, Ma was forced to retire and Fan was reprimanded, Ma said. The death toll from the mine disaster was never reported, he added.1 x/ z- D5 N( w9 T
"This kind of thing has an important impact on the success of local officials," Ma explained, "so they always want to cover it up."/ f6 ?+ {+ u9 w- Z1 E3 u+ e
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黄树贤否认了一些矿难责任人的责任并没有认真追查的说法。

日月光

More recently, some blackmail targets have started striking back. More than 40 people were arrested last month in Shanxi province on charges of impersonating reporters and trying to extort money from local officials and business owners, according to the official New China News Agency.! @+ N4 H! i  \) S- B. u# X
"People can't help but ask, 'Why are these fake reporters so savage?' " the news agency said in a Dec. 12 editorial.人在德国 社区: J3 E7 ?/ L+ B" T

* a# Y* n* }' V1 DZhou Yu, a slight man with sharp gestures and a ring in his left earlobe, said the lure of money was not what motivated him to take Bai's payoff envelope that evening in Shenzhen. "I was trying to help," he said in an interview. "It was out of friendship."6 `* H- w( M+ \6 h
Zhou said Bai, a physician, had telephoned him earlier in the day asking for advice because, she said, two reporters had warned her they were about to write a story accusing her Jianmin Clinic of providing services it was not certified to perform, including abortions. Bai turned to him, Zhou explained, because a year earlier he had written what he described as a critical but objective story about her clinic.人在德国 社区2 h! _* _- Z% K" p
"If I can help a friend, I think I should help," he said.
- T! l0 q# P& PThe two reporters who went to Bai's office were Hua Kejian of the Nanfang Daily and Liang Yongjian of Zhou's own Southern Metropolitan Daily, both owned by the prestigious Nanfang publishing house based in nearby Guangzhou, according to Zhou and others involved. A third reporter, Song Yi of the Yangcheng Evening News, joined the pair later in the day, they said.
( y% D* G& s4 n0 U3 o"Their motive was very apparent," Zhou said.人在德国 社区  h, Z* w+ c, r" i( B, J8 ?" Z) c- @: W' w
After contacting the reporters, Zhou told Bai she would have to come up with 15,000 yuan to buy silence for her clinic, according to Zhou and the other sources. Zhou said he did not plan to pocket any of the money himself, only to pass it along to the other reporters.
! B) g7 n4 W' k6 F) }% n6 s  Q* A"I thought this would be okay with my newspaper," he added, "because I was just a go-between."6 c" e& D' k9 [, X& W8 p2 c
The sum demanded was high, even for a boomtown such as Shenzhen. Most blackmail payouts to reporters are counted in the hundreds of yuan, according to Chinese reporters and editors. Acting on the advice of another acquaintance, therefore, Bai sent a cellphone message to Zhou complaining that the price was unreasonable. But Zhou responded that there was no way to reduce it, Bai's acquaintance said in an interview.
  Y2 R' ~: y% _2 zZhou told Bai the cash should be divided into three packets of 5,000 yuan each and arranged for the handover to take place in the parking lot near his bureau on a leafy boulevard in central Shenzhen, according to several people involved.
8 w% b( v# V2 A' c& ~人在德国 社区At that point, Gou, the bureau chief, received a troubling telephone call. The acquaintance of Bai's, outraged at the amount demanded by Zhou, called to say Gou's reporters were involved in a blackmail scheme and that, as bureau chief, he should do something about it, according to Gou and the acquaintance, who described his role on condition of anonymity.
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! e, r% q1 @$ n0 M"As soon as I heard about it," Gou said in an interview, "I wanted to verify what was going on."
2 m5 ~9 g5 F/ S" g5 `8 @Gou, 32, arranged with Bai to be in her car that evening as a witness.5 ?9 K2 @& J; [. h, U! `& h

5 u) ]5 Q$ x0 y5 G9 D. J+ v# Pcsuchen.deWhen Bai got out of her car and approached Zhou, the two exchanged pleasantries for several minutes, and Zhou patted her on the shoulder. But when Zhou looked inside the envelope, he complained because she had not divided the cash into three bundles as requested, according to Zhou and others.
' x) g. }0 ^# z3 yZhou, in the interview, said he showed up alone to collect the money because the three other reporters were busy and he wanted to do them a favor. Gou, the bureau chief, said that "a lot is unclear" about what was really going on. In any case, Gou got out of the car after taking the photographs and confronted Zhou, who promptly handed the envelope back to Bai.4 y, e( _$ D  C1 K/ H
Returning the money was not enough, Gou said, and ordered Zhou to follow him to the office. Once inside, Gou started writing a memo about what had occurred and demanded to see Liang, the other reporter from his paper.# {' f! f2 d  p" f
Liang reported to Gou's office looking embarrassed, witnesses said. "There's nothing wrong with my reporting," he maintained, according to the witnesses. For his part, Zhou said that the ringleader was Nanfang Daily's Hua Kejian and that he himself was only trying to help Bai get through a difficult time.
3 q0 M/ L$ E8 f6 ^6 U' g) ~6 DUnmoved, Gou fired Zhou. Liang was spared for lack of evidence, he said, and continues to work in the bureau. Hua Kejian and Song Yi also remain at their jobs.
  b# i  ^7 W+ b8 a% }At the bureau's regular weekly meeting on Oct. 10, Gou told his staff that the Zhou Yu case was a "shame" for himself, the bureau and the newspaper, besmirching its "glorious history," according to a record of the meeting.
) m1 E' L6 n+ _5 z) D8 [After investigating, Gou told his reporters that he was convinced this was a unique case; he threatened to fire any others caught engaging in such conduct. "If anyone feels he can only make a living by blackmailing people, he should leave," Gou said, according to the record. "This is not the place for you."0 J1 O6 D$ }' Y8 I
But he also acknowledged that Shenzhen has an "unhealthy environment" in which such corruption can flourish. One of his own reporters has asked him repeatedly to withhold certain news, he complained.
0 u& P  U! w' r  Z- q0 i人在德国 社区Shenzhen journalists said that, in addition to blackmailing, reporters and editors regularly receive payments from businessmen and officials in exchange for publication of favorable articles. Instances range from the 300,000 yuan paid to a newspaper recently for an article praising Shenzhen's city government to "red envelopes" containing "transportation money" for reporters who show up at news conferences. The practice is encouraged, they added, by a system in which reporters are also responsible for selling advertising and subscriptions to the institutions and businesses they cover.
, S& C+ u. S6 [) n' ?8 e2 o$ `: vThe payoffs have become so accepted that a reporter who showed up this month at a news conference called by an Internet software company here complained loudly and walked out when he discovered he would be given only a bottle of mineral water, according to other reporters present.
. x" [0 f( `( l1 t1 a* X+ u"I would say there are problems in the Chinese media world," one of them commented.人在德国 社区7 b, ~7 P0 j. {3 T( d( g
Zhou, meanwhile, said he feels betrayed by Bai for denouncing him to his boss. He no longer has any contact with his former colleagues Liang, Hua and Song, he said. His girlfriend seems to be the only one who believes his version of what happened that evening, he complained. His dreams of being a great journalist have dimmed, he added, and now he plans to start a trading company.
! h  E* B, l# a3 [人在德国 社区"I'm not thinking of the news business anymore," he said, smiling. "This had too much of an impact on me."