Related News
Home » Opinion » Opinion Columns
Netizen sleuths challenge cops
By Wang Yong |
February 24, 2009, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ALTHOUGH the suspicious death of a prisoner remains clouded, it won't be long before the truth comes out, given the mounting role of Netizens to monitor police behavior.
A group of 15 independent Netizen "investigators" toured a detention facility in Jining County, Yunnan Province, last Friday, in what they later called "a naive attempt" to discover what caused the death of prisoner Li Qiaoming. The 24-year-old man had been jailed for illegally felling trees.
In a report released on Saturday, the Netizen investigators said: "We had naively thought that we could watch the police video record (of the crime scene) and meet the suspect, but we were denied both (by prosecutors and police) in the name of law."
To be sure, China's procedural law does bar anyone except an official investigator or a lawyer from meeting a suspect or watching a police video.
But this time, the 15 Netizens were "independent investigators" invited by the Yunnan Provincial Government, which had told local police and prosecutors that their visit was important - it was a special mission in the history of the province's (or the police's) political transparency.
If I were the local police chief or a lead prosecutor, I would have welcomed the independent investigators with open arms and allowed them to talk to the suspect and watch the police video record to demonstrate that my hands were clean.
Police said Li died when he bumped into a wall in a game of "blindman's bluff" with other inmates. Netizens were skeptical.
There was no point to deny the citizen investigators the basic right to information, in the name of law. Even if local police and prosecutors were sincere sentries of the law in their rejection of Netizen's requests, these guardians should have disclosed the records on their own before they stated that the man died purely by accident.
Wu Hao, deputy director of the Yunnan Publicity Department, yesterday supported the disappointed Netizens. He had organized the independent Netizen monitoring tour. He said the online citizen sentries did not want to supersede the judicial department in handling the case but said that every citizen has the right to know, to participate, to express and to monitor, as conferred by the Constitution.
Wu Hao was not alone in upholding these Constitutional rights. Xinhua published a commentary on Sunday, saying it's the people's right to ask the local police whether they had followed their conscience in handling the case in which the facts are still not clear.
The truth won't be long in coming, now that local police are being grilled on the platform of public opinions.
A group of 15 independent Netizen "investigators" toured a detention facility in Jining County, Yunnan Province, last Friday, in what they later called "a naive attempt" to discover what caused the death of prisoner Li Qiaoming. The 24-year-old man had been jailed for illegally felling trees.
In a report released on Saturday, the Netizen investigators said: "We had naively thought that we could watch the police video record (of the crime scene) and meet the suspect, but we were denied both (by prosecutors and police) in the name of law."
To be sure, China's procedural law does bar anyone except an official investigator or a lawyer from meeting a suspect or watching a police video.
But this time, the 15 Netizens were "independent investigators" invited by the Yunnan Provincial Government, which had told local police and prosecutors that their visit was important - it was a special mission in the history of the province's (or the police's) political transparency.
If I were the local police chief or a lead prosecutor, I would have welcomed the independent investigators with open arms and allowed them to talk to the suspect and watch the police video record to demonstrate that my hands were clean.
Police said Li died when he bumped into a wall in a game of "blindman's bluff" with other inmates. Netizens were skeptical.
There was no point to deny the citizen investigators the basic right to information, in the name of law. Even if local police and prosecutors were sincere sentries of the law in their rejection of Netizen's requests, these guardians should have disclosed the records on their own before they stated that the man died purely by accident.
Wu Hao, deputy director of the Yunnan Publicity Department, yesterday supported the disappointed Netizens. He had organized the independent Netizen monitoring tour. He said the online citizen sentries did not want to supersede the judicial department in handling the case but said that every citizen has the right to know, to participate, to express and to monitor, as conferred by the Constitution.
Wu Hao was not alone in upholding these Constitutional rights. Xinhua published a commentary on Sunday, saying it's the people's right to ask the local police whether they had followed their conscience in handling the case in which the facts are still not clear.
The truth won't be long in coming, now that local police are being grilled on the platform of public opinions.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
