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Serving Justice, or Saving Face
posted Thursday, 3 May 2007
According to Xinhua, China's state run media agency, seven men have been formally arraigned for trial over the murder of journalist Lan chenzhang, who was beaten to death on 10 January, 2007, while he was investigating illegal coal mines in Hunyuan country, Shanxi province.
The men include mine owner Hou Zhenrun and six others. The charges against them include 6 counts of "intentionally causing physical hurt to others", and one count of harboring suspects. Their trial commenced on Sunday at the Intermediate People's Court in Linfen, Shanxi.
The trial that almost wasn't
Although the murder of any journalist in the line of duty is notable, Lan's case was made all the more prominent due to the way that it was handled by local authorities, whom sought to suppress news of the incident, and to cast ungrounded insinuations on Lan. Causing widespread outrage by, effectively, accusing Lan of inciting his own slaying.
When news of Lan's death became public, Shanxi province official attempted to cover it up. They denied that Lan was threatening to expose illegal activities, instead releasing a statement admitting that the mine that Lan was supposedly investigating was illegal, but incorrectly stating that it was no longer in operation; having been closed for some time after local villagers intervened.
The real outrage, however, came when officials for Hunyuan county, released a statement insinuating that Lan was not a journalist, but was instead a professional conman who had come to Hunyuan in order to blackmailer local businessmen. Threatening to print bad stories about them unless they paid him large sums of money.
Officials cited Lan's lack of journalistic accreditation as being a key sign of his dishonest intent. However, shortly after the statement was released, China Trade News, state accredited news groups based in Beijing, released a strongly worded rebuttal to official claims. In which they confirmed that Lan was a journalist, and that he was in Hunyuan in an official capacity.
According to China Trade News', the reason why Lan did not appear on official records was that he had been hired in late December, and the paperwork for his accreditation had not been fully cleared by the time of his death.
Face V Justice
Although Lan's murderers are being brought to trial, China watchers have taken stock of the situation and have questioned whether they are being brought before authorities in the pursuit of justice, or whether they are being tried purely as a face saving measure?
Initially, Lan's murder, was sidelined by higher level officials and it wasn't until subsequent attempts to pass him off as "being a malefactor who got what he deserved" created outrage that they took things seriously.
Indeed, the matter was only taken seriously after international and domestic anger, and the associated loss of face, became sufficient to force for Chinese President Hu Jintao to personally intervene, and to call for the matter to be investigated further.
The men include mine owner Hou Zhenrun and six others. The charges against them include 6 counts of "intentionally causing physical hurt to others", and one count of harboring suspects. Their trial commenced on Sunday at the Intermediate People's Court in Linfen, Shanxi.
The trial that almost wasn't
Although the murder of any journalist in the line of duty is notable, Lan's case was made all the more prominent due to the way that it was handled by local authorities, whom sought to suppress news of the incident, and to cast ungrounded insinuations on Lan. Causing widespread outrage by, effectively, accusing Lan of inciting his own slaying.
When news of Lan's death became public, Shanxi province official attempted to cover it up. They denied that Lan was threatening to expose illegal activities, instead releasing a statement admitting that the mine that Lan was supposedly investigating was illegal, but incorrectly stating that it was no longer in operation; having been closed for some time after local villagers intervened.
| "It is an illegal mine, but it was closed a long time ago by the villagers," Gu Shengming, Spokesperson, Datong city |
The real outrage, however, came when officials for Hunyuan county, released a statement insinuating that Lan was not a journalist, but was instead a professional conman who had come to Hunyuan in order to blackmailer local businessmen. Threatening to print bad stories about them unless they paid him large sums of money.
| "There are fake reporters coming almost every day, demanding payoffs in exchange for positive press or by threatening negative stories" Spokesperson, Hunyuan, Shanxi |
Officials cited Lan's lack of journalistic accreditation as being a key sign of his dishonest intent. However, shortly after the statement was released, China Trade News, state accredited news groups based in Beijing, released a strongly worded rebuttal to official claims. In which they confirmed that Lan was a journalist, and that he was in Hunyuan in an official capacity.
According to China Trade News', the reason why Lan did not appear on official records was that he had been hired in late December, and the paperwork for his accreditation had not been fully cleared by the time of his death.
Face V Justice
Although Lan's murderers are being brought to trial, China watchers have taken stock of the situation and have questioned whether they are being brought before authorities in the pursuit of justice, or whether they are being tried purely as a face saving measure?
Initially, Lan's murder, was sidelined by higher level officials and it wasn't until subsequent attempts to pass him off as "being a malefactor who got what he deserved" created outrage that they took things seriously.
Indeed, the matter was only taken seriously after international and domestic anger, and the associated loss of face, became sufficient to force for Chinese President Hu Jintao to personally intervene, and to call for the matter to be investigated further.
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