Local Party chief jailed for paying off reporters

• Source: Global Times
• [10:03 December 14 2009]
• Comments

By Qiu Wei

A regional court has sentenced the former Party chief of Yuxian county, in northern Hebei Province, to 13 years' imprisonment for abuse of power in a coalmine blast coverup scandal and bribery, the Beijing Youth Daily reported, the latest case highlighting government involvement in the coalmine sector and the crisis of the integrity of journalism in China.

Chongli County Court of Hebei ruled Saturday that Li Hongxing, former Yuxian Party secretary, "directed" a local publicity chief to bribe reporters in an attempt to silence media coverage of a blast at Lijiawa Coal Mine in July 2008, which cost 35 workers' lives.

The coal mine owners eventually spent 2.6 million yuan ($382,000) to seal the lips of journalists, the newspaper reported Sunday.

The report did not say if the reporters involved were punished. A Xinhua News Agency report said earlier this month that the judicial department would decide whether 10 suspected reporters should be implicated.

Li denied the charges of abuse of power under the coverup allegation, and said he would appeal the sentencing, the paper said.

"What I said back then was we (the government) should not pay for that. Those who were responsible for the accident should pay," Li told the court, referring to what he called a "reception cost for reporters," the newspaper reported.

Li insisted that Yu Dehong, the former publicity chief, proposed that the pit owners should cover the cost, a suggestion Li did not oppose, the paper said.

Yu claimed that he was told by Li to "suppress the media at any price," the paper said.

The paper did not give the number or the names of organizations of reporters who approached local authorities in the aftermath of the pit blast, but it said local officials received at least "dozens of dispatches of reporters" and also reached out to "some with State media outlets in Beijing."