BEIJING (AFP) - A Beijing television journalist has been jailed
for one year for fabricating a report about cardboard-stuffed buns
that embarrassed China during a barrage of food scandals, state
media said Monday.
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Zi Beijia, a temporary employee at Beijing TV, was also fined 1,000
yuan (130 dollars) after a court on Sunday found him guilty of
"infringing the reputation of a commodity", the Beijing News
reported.
The court said Zi orchestrated a news report last month that street
vendors in the city were selling baozi -- a popular bun-like snack
usually filled with meat or vegetables -- containing
chemically-softened cardboard.
The broadcast came amid mounting reports of shoddy or dangerous
Chinese foods, and other merchandise and generated wide local and
international interest.
It also embarrassed the government, which had been denying that
China had a big problem with fake or dangerous products and had
accused foreign media of sensational reporting on the issue.
Beijing TV, like all media groups under the control of the
government, later declared the report bogus and sacked Zi. It said
he had instructed a group of migrant workers to make the phony buns
while he filmed them.
"The programme caused evil social effects and severely ruined the
reputation of the relevant commodities," according to the court
ruling.
The official Xinhua news agency said Zi pleaded guilty to the
charges, and claimed he was "muddled-headed" when he produced the
report.
However there has been some speculation that Zi was in fact a
scapegoat and that the report was genuine.
Xinhua was one of the state-run news organisations that had earlier
carried reports citing cynical Chinese saying Zi could have been
the fall guy for the government as it tried to squelch embarrassing
news.
But Xinhua also reported on
Sunday that following the Beijing TV case, at least 60 newspapers
had signed a declaration "to root out fabricated news in all
newspapers and rebuild the credibility of the
media."
How ironic!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070813/wl_asia_afp/healthchinafoodsafetymediatrial