Top editor of scandal-hit Guangzhou paper sacked
Print Edition
Two top executives of the Guangzhou-based New Express Daily were removed from their posts yesterday after a reporter of the newspaper was arrested for defaming a company by fabricating more than 10 reports.
The reporter, Chen Yongzhou, was arrested on Wednesday after earlier confessing on state television to accepting bribes and fabricating more than a dozen stories that said Changsha-based Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co engaged in sales fraud, exaggerated its profits and used black public relations tactics.
The company strongly denied the accusations.
The Yangcheng Evening News Group, parent company of the scandal-mired paper, said yesterday that it had dismissed Li Yihang, publisher and editor-in-chief of the paper, and deputy publisher Ma Dongjin.
Li, however, remained as one of the executives of the group.
The group’s Party chief Liu Hongbing was named as the new publisher of the paper and Sun Xuan as the new editor-in-chief.
The Yangcheng Evening News yesterday published an editorial from the People’s Daily which said Chen’s behavior had “harmed the reputation and honor of the news media and journalists.”
The sackings came one day after Guangdong Province’s press regulator ordered the newspaper to carry out full rectification.
On Thursday, the Guangdong Provincial Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television also stripped Chen of his official reporting credentials.
In early September, Zoomlion, a large engineering company in Changsha, capital of neighboring Hunan Province, reported to local police that Chen had defamed the company in a series of reports since 2012, which damaged its commercial reputation and caused severe losses.
Police in Changsha launched an investigation on September 16 and detained Chen in Guangzhou on October 18 after uncovering a large amount of related evidence.
Chen’s case caused a stir when his newspaper published two front-page commentaries last week asking authorities to “please release him” after he was detained.
On Sunday, the paper recanted its support for Chen and issued its own apology, saying it had behaved unethically and damaged the credibility of the news media.
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