Nongfu Spring targets paper over 'false' reports

Nongfu Spring, a major domestic mineral water producer, has confirmed to the Global Times that it submitted a petition to China's media watchdog on Monday to hit back at "false" reports in the Beijing Times about their product.

Zhou Li, the secretary of Nongfu Spring's board of directors, told the Global Times on Monday that he had submitted the petition to the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications around 10 am.

Before the submission, the Hangzhou-based water company announced on its Sina Weibo microblog that it had sent staff members to Beijing to expose the improper behavior of the Beijing Times.

From April 10 to May 7, the Beijing Times "fabricated" opinions from national healthcare authorities and "attacked" Nongfu Spring by publishing 76 reports on 67 pages over 28 consecutive days, which were part of "apparently planned and organized" attempts to sway public opinion against Nongfu Spring, said the announcement.

It listed some examples in an attempt to demonstrate that the Beijing Times had no evidence to indicate that the quality of Nongfu Spring water is lower than that of tap water.

It also said the newspaper has "malicious intent" toward Nongfu Spring, citing that it only interviewed the company once during those days and ignored the fact that Nongfu Spring water has quality safety certificate labels on its bottles.

The announcement came after the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television on Friday called on all media organizations and reporters to learn lessons from a recent scandal relating to false reports.

Chen Yongzhou, a reporter with the Guangzhou-based newspaper New Express, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly damaging the commercial reputation of a listed company, days after he confessed to fabricating a series of reports targeting Zoomlion, an engineering company in Changsha, Hunan province, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Zhou said he decided to hit back at the Beijing Times after he had heard about the statement from the media watchdog, but he refused to comment on whether his decision was inspired by Chen's case.

Nongfu Spring is timing this to attract public attention, Zhang Zhi'an, an associate professor at the School of Communication and Design at Sun Yat-sen University, told the Global Times on Monday.

"It is trying to prove that it has been wronged," Zhang said, adding that he has analyzed the Beijing Times' reports. "But it's difficult to prove that the reports are false and have malicious intent. To some extent, the reports just lost balance."

Chen's case has reminded Nongfu Spring that it can use relevant regulations and laws to protect itself, as it has followed legal procedures, Wang Sixin, a law professor with the Communication University of China, told the Global Times Monday.

"The Nongfu Spring case is not good for the media. Journalists should be very careful when blowing the lid on big companies and should collect solid evidence," Wang said. "However it's almost impossible for them to support every detail with facts. So journalists will have less space to do news reporting."

Calls by the Global Times to the Beijing Times went unanswered by press time.