Cases of media violations publicized

Violations committed by media organizations, including blackmail and the fabrication of news, were publicized by Chinese authorities on Wednesday.

The cases involved Henan Youth Daily, Southwest Business, Youth Daily, Maoming Evening News, Shanxi Market Herald, Xinzhou Daily, Health Herald and Henan Workers Daily, said the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT).

The Henan Youth Daily forced all members of staff, including its editors and journalists, to ask more institutions to buy the newspaper. Only marketing staff can sell papers. The newspaper also published advertisements as news articles.

The newspaper was fined 20,000 yuan (3,202 U.S. dollars) and was ordered to rectify its illegal practices by Henan provincial authorities.

Zhang Haoli, a journalist with Southwest Business, charged a township government in Chongqing Municipality 40,000 yuan for advertising in September and October 2013. Zhang was fined and stripped of his press card by Sichuan Provincial authorities, while the newspaper was also warned and fined in April.

Hu Yazhu, a journalist with Guangzhou-based South Daily, accepted about 315,000 yuan from a company from June to August 2011, together with Liu Weian, a journalist of an associate website of the Beijing-based Legal Daily.

In addition, Hu and Liu blackmailed companies for about 178,000 yuan threatening to publish negative reports. The two were arrested last year and the case is in the process of going to trial. They have been stripped of their press cards and banned from journalism for life.

A campaign was launched in March targeting fake news and blackmail in the industry. The campaign was launched by the publicity department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Public Security, the SAPPRFT and six other departments.