In an era where information floods in like a torrent, who dares to truly expose the hidden dark sides? Investigative journalists are very, very few who dare to seek the truth, and they often become the first victims to pay the price.
Two reporters from the “Economic Information Daily” were investigating the issue of substandard construction materials in high-speed rail in Anhui, and were attacked as a result. Their phones were snatched, and one reporter’s right hand was injured. A person in charge at the scene, speaking arrogantly to the camera, said that he had confiscated the phones and that his subordinates had beaten the reporters. The reporters thought that since they had been beaten and their phones had been stolen, they should at least be allowed to leave, right? The other party said: “We caught you at the scene, how can I let you leave?” Open intimidation and threats. This sentence is extremely terrifying. After the beating and the phone robbery, they still won’t let others leave? What do they want to do, illegal detention? Continue to harm?
If the safety of journalists cannot be guaranteed, who would dare to dig into the hidden truths? A single stone stirs up a thousand waves. As soon as the news broke, it immediately went to the top of the trending searches. It should be known that the “Economic Information Daily” is a media outlet under Xinhua News Agency, so many other media outlets that supported the two investigative reporters also emphasized this keyword, “Reporters Wang Wenzhi and Cheng Zilong of the “Economic Information Daily” under the supervision and sponsorship of Xinhua News Agency were beaten in Anhui…”
This is of course not wrong, but does it mean that “if reporters who are not from media outlets under Xinhua News Agency are beaten, we can ignore it and not deal with it?” Perhaps a large number of media outlets do not want to express the meaning of “reporters from Xinhua News Agency, you dare to beat them”, they just hope to add those words to quickly attract the attention of people online, gain public support, help the reporters, and severely punish those who attacked the reporters.
This is reasonable, but it’s not good. If it happens a few more times, some people will understand that the beating of reporters from other newspapers is “acceptable” or “not a terrible thing.” Then the consequences will be that the number of reporters and investigative journalists will continue to decrease, and even if it doesn’t decrease, the things they can do will continue to decrease. At least they won’t go and provoke China Railway again.
So don’t look at the fact that this incident of beating and attacking reporters has been exposed on the trending searches, and perhaps it will be handled relatively well, but some people have already achieved the effect of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys. Beating people, well, it didn’t cause any serious substantive harm. There will be punishments, but they will never be the kind of heart-wrenching punishments. But the fact that the reporters were beaten is a fact, and more reporters can only choose to “better safe than sorry.” Just like the media said, they are reporters from Xinhua News Agency, and they were beaten, so can reporters from ordinary media still dare to investigate such incidents? Especially the media from the Southern system, maybe after being beaten, they will also be scolded by those brainless people online as “foreign forces, deserved to be beaten.”
The wind is rising, the pen never stops, who knows the truth has sunk into oblivion. The issue of shoddy work and materials in high-speed rail is a major news story concerning the safety of many people’s lives. Of course, once the investigative reporters find something, it may also be a big deal for some local leaders to lose their hats.
So, they took action. Even if they were reporters from the “Economic Information Daily.” After all, there is a difference between reporters from the supervising and sponsoring unit under Xinhua News Agency and real Xinhua News Agency reporters. The people from China Railway Seventh Bureau probably know the ins and outs of this. But this further illustrates that if a more ordinary media reporter came, it would probably not be as simple as being beaten.
This society, or rather, ordinary citizens need reporters, and even more so, investigative journalists, but what is happening is also proving that the environment is forcing reporters to disappear. For those units that are so guilty that they beat reporters and fabricate, they don’t need reporters. And what would a society be like without reporters? Maybe it would be like this…
Workers demanding their hard-earned wages were surrounded and beaten by more than 90 security guards hired by the other party. They beat the people who were demanding wages first, and the people behind them didn’t dare to demand wages.
You see, there are no reporters to investigate and report on this matter, and people can only rely on public opinion to force local officials to give some kind of response. But if there is no media participation, and only relying on the supervision of public opinion, then even if there is a result, this result is also easily questioned, causing some people to choose not to believe. Take the matter of Dadun Village, for example, it has been making a lot of noise recently. Today, the local government issued a notice, appearing to clarify, saying that they have investigated several village committee teams and found no problems for the time being, and they are clean. On the contrary, the whistleblower, using the method of framing, sells alcohol, and his alcohol also has problems…
Then what, is it over after the notice? Obviously not, as can be seen from the comments, many people don’t believe it. Some people believe the official, and some people support the coward. You ask me what I think? I don’t give a damn, I haven’t even seen a proper report, and I don’t even understand Cantonese, what can I think?
I can only ignore it! In fact, at this time, if there was a media with sufficient credibility to investigate and report, the truth could be revealed instantly. It’s a pity that local media don’t dare to talk about their own local affairs, and foreign media can’t go either, at most they just say “called xxx, no response” like that. It really echoes Director Lu’s words, never doing cross-provincial public opinion supervision, never laughing at others’ jokes. Everyone is happy, but at the same time, it’s all vague.
Basically, that’s how it is. The fact that a reporter was beaten is itself an extremely important signal that requires the whole society, all people to pay attention to, and even more so, requires the official to treat it with caution.
Whether it’s a Xinhua News Agency reporter or an ordinary reporter who was beaten. It’s not just a question of whether the reporter can return safely, but it’s also about each and every one of us: if the media falls silent, how will society deal with itself?
Or, if a reporter is beaten and you still have to see if they are a Xinhua News Agency reporter, then can ordinary people who have no backing still have the courage to stand up and say no? Of course, those are macro issues, and they are more important issues. For this matter itself, it is also not to be underestimated. After all, everyone knows that high-speed rail, airplanes, and these things are related to life, and it’s the kind of big problem if there’s a problem.
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