{"id":36783,"date":"2013-12-02T19:55:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T19:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=36783 "},"modified":"2013-12-02T19:55:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T19:55:00","slug":"36783-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=36783","title":{"rendered":"China journalist slams state TV for airing public confession"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BEIJING Mon Dec 2, 2013 6:41am EST<\/div>
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Window cleaners stand on a platform hanging from the front of the CCTV Window cleaners stand on a platform hanging from the front of the CCTV (China Central Television) building on a sunny day in central Beijing March 22, 2011.<\/div>
CREDIT: REUTERS\/DAVID GRAY<\/div>
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(Reuters) – A producer for China’s state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday that he had been fired after he criticized the network’s role in a controversial crackdown on online rumors.<\/div>
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Wang Qinglei made the statement in an open letter, which has since been scrubbed from Chinese social media.<\/div>
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He took issue with China Central Television’s airing of a confession by Chinese-American venture capitalist Charles Xue in which he said he irresponsibly spread gossip online.<\/div>
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CCTV often airs confessions by thieves, prostitutes and other petty criminals, but in recent months, a string of high-profile suspects have confessed to crimes on air, often wearing handcuffs and jumpsuits.<\/div>
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Critics say public confessions deprive the accused of the right to a fair trial.<\/div>
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Wang echoed this criticism in his letter, saying that while fighting legitimate gossip is laudable, the media should not decide who is innocent or guilty.<\/div>
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Critics say China’s campaign against online rumors is nothing more than censorship. Several well-known commentators have been caught in the crackdown, and high-profile microbloggers have said they are more reticent to post for fear of repercussions.<\/div>
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“The news media is not a court,” Wang said. “What authority do we have to meddle with the law to judge who’s a Big V and what is a rumor?”<\/div>
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Big Vs are users of China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblog who have accumulated a large number of followers, and who have come under specific scrutiny from authorities in the anti-rumor campaign. Xue had 12 million followers on Weibo.<\/div>
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CCTV essentially prosecuted Xue by airing his confession, Wang said.<\/div>
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Police have used the crackdown on gossip as a pretext to go after cases they could not have easily tackled before, he added.<\/div>
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“Local public security authorities, in cases where there was no obvious legal or judicial basis, would use all kinds of charges to crack down on ‘rumours’,” his letter says.<\/div>
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A top internet official said last week the crackdown on rumors was a resounding success at “cleaning” the internet and emphasized that it was China’s prerogative to ban online speech it views as threatening domestic stability.<\/div>
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Courts in China answer to the ruling Communist Party. It is unusual for those accused of crimes – particularly in politicized cases – to have a fair trial or to be found not guilty.<\/div>
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(Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Nick Macfie)<\/div>
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Continue reading <\/span><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>the<\/span><\/a> <\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>original article<\/a><\/a><\/a>.<\/a><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/a><\/span> <\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>
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BBC: Chinese journalist Wang Qinglei denounces censorship<\/a><\/div>
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