In the past few days, the remarks of Mr. Lü, the director of Shandong Radio and Television Station, have attracted widespread attention from public opinion.

Mr. Lü’s original words were: “Shandian News never conducts cross-provincial public opinion supervision, we never laugh at others, we never rebroadcast anything in the gray area, we only forward positive energy. Because Shandong Radio and Television is the TV station of Confucius’ hometown, we remember that Confucius has a golden rule-like maxim accepted by all mankind and all ethnic groups, which is ‘do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.’ As a person, especially as a Shandong native, you must be honest, this is our basic principle, we never laugh at others.”

Many platforms are publishing articles criticizing Mr. Lü’s words, and therefore received complaints from Mr. Lü and his employees, saying that they were taking things out of context and distorting them. In fact, I checked, the above paragraph is Mr. Lü’s original words, which were compiled based on his speech transcript, and there is no such thing as taking things out of context and distorting them.

Looking at the entire public opinion field, basically everyone is condemning Mr. Lü, and no one is speaking for him. It can be seen that justice is in the hearts of the people, and everyone has a consensus on the importance and necessity of public opinion supervision and cross-regional supervision.

So far, I have not seen anyone within the system come out to speak for Mr. Lü, which means that even within the system, his remarks are not recognized. If his remarks were mainstream within the system, there would definitely be a lot of so-called positive energy coming out to defend him. In recent years, there have been quite a few cases of so-called positive energy coming out to muddy the waters.

Some opinions hold that Mr. Lü’s remarks are perfectly normal within his system, and he is not a serious and professional media person at all, so we don’t need to pretend to be outsiders.

I do not agree with this kind of view. If we follow this logic, after Mr. Lü said those words, we should all shut up and not discuss or question them. If this is the case, then what topics can we speak on now?

Public opinion supervision is of course very important, not “laughing at jokes”, we must stand up and speak out with a clear and firm stance, we cannot allow Mr. Lü and others to deny the importance and necessity of public opinion supervision and cross-provincial supervision, we cannot default and silently accept things just because they think certain things are what they are.

If there were no cross-provincial public opinion supervision today, many people would suffer unjust wrongs, and many illegal behaviors would not be restricted.

A recent case in Hebei is very typical.

Ma Shushan, a 75-year-old retired cadre of the county agricultural and rural affairs bureau in Qianxi County, Hebei Province, reported in his real name Li Guifu, the county party secretary, and Zheng Yanhua, the organization minister of the Qianxi County Party Committee, on the abnormal and improper issues in personnel appointments, as well as the lighting project of the main street in the urban area, etc., and was arrested by the local public security organs.

On December 28, 2023, the Qianxi County Public Security Bureau concluded the investigation of this case and transferred it to the Qianxi County Procuratorate for review and prosecution on the grounds that Ma Shushan was suspected of false accusation and framing. On January 2, 2024, the Qianxi County Procuratorate filed a public prosecution with the Qianxi County Court. At this time, the charges against Ma Shushan by the Qianxi County Procuratorate had increased to two: first, false accusation and framing; second, defamation.

This matter, after being exposed by Li Weiao, a reporter from Economic Observer, attracted the attention of the entire public opinion.

A retired old cadre reported a county party secretary in his real name, and as a result, he was arrested. Real-name reporting, as long as it is not a false accusation made knowingly and intentionally, regardless of whether it is finally verified or denied, cannot be considered a crime, this is a basic right of citizens.

Under the pressure of public opinion, the Qianxi County Procuratorate withdrew the prosecution yesterday, believing that Ma Shushan did not have any criminal facts, and Lao Ma went home.

Think about it, if this matter relied on the local media in Hebei, could they expose this matter? If it weren’t for the Economic Observer and other out-of-town media to expose this matter, could Lao Ma have regained his freedom?

Therefore, Mr. Lü’s hostility towards cross-provincial supervision does not represent the fundamental interests of the general public, but represents the interests of some officials who regard power as a talisman and do not want to accept any supervision. For such a position, we cannot hesitate, we must stand up and resolutely criticize and supervise.

We cannot hand over this world to the Lüs.

January 18, 2024

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