Deadlines aren't only danger for reporters

• Source: Global Times
• [03:09 November 09 2009]
• Comments

By Ji Beibei

Journalists face danger not just in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan but they also face physical dangers and threats all across the country.

Reporters have one of the 10 riskiest jobs in China, and as a result, they must pay higher insurance premiums, Guangzhou Daily reported Sunday.

The threats are varied. While some are physical, some come from influential figures that feel they're above a news story.

The newspaper reported that the risk to photographers is only slightly lower than those working in mines.

A China Life Insurance Company worker told the Global Times Sunday that they do not provide insurance for some war reporters like those who go to Afghanistan. Coverage for war reporters is higher than those for accountants and other ordinary people.

The risks faced by reporters were discussed and highlighted at an event sponsored by the All-China Journalists Association in observance of China's 10th Journalists' Day.

There were about 700,000 journalists on the Chinese mainland, according to the association.

There were about 40 cases of reporters being harassed, beaten and abused over the previous 12 months, according to attorney Zhou Ze, who organized the reporters' rights meeting in Beijing Sunday.

The Beijing Youth Daily reported that about 13 million links of "reporters being beaten" were available on google.cn, the Chinese-language version.

Zhang Jinxing, a reporter in Luoyang, Henan Province,was detained and beaten by local police after he tried to photograph a car accident scene, Henan online reported.

China Central Television reported Sunday that a reporter was beaten up by the general manager of a power company in Wuchuan, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region when he inquired about residents' complaints about power supply.