Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200812/20081212/article_384198.htm
8 'fake' reporters detained by police
Created: 2008-12-12 0:42:56
BEIJING police have detained eight people who posed as journalists, allegedly blackmailing interviewees and selling 74 fake press cards.
Police raided the office of a Website named "China Legal Watch" in early November, after an investigation into reports that the site's staff had been selling fake press cards, said Wang Qizhen, an officer of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, yesterday.
Police apprehended an individual they said was the ringleader, Ge You. They also apprehended five accomplices. They then went to Luoyang, the capital of Henan Province, to arrest two other suspects.
The eight have been charged with fraud and forging official documents.
It is alleged that, claiming to be journalists, they blackmailed enterprises and local government bodies following cases of medical malpractice and industrial accidents.
The fake journalists carried their own fraudulent press cards, police said. Other cards were sold for 5,000 yuan (US$730) to 15,000 yuan.
Wang did not disclose how many people or how much money was involved in the case.
Last January, Lan Chengzhang, an employee of the Shanxi office of Beijing-based China Trade News, was beaten to death at an unlicensed coal mine in the northern province by eight thugs hired by the mine owner.
Lan and a colleague, who were apparently not fully-fledged journalists, were allegedly trying to extort money from the owner.
Late last month, the General Administration of Press and Publication said there was evidence that 58 people were involved in taking bribes from a coal mine in the northern province of Shanxi to cover up the death of a miner.
Twenty-eight of them were posing as reporters.
Police raided the office of a Website named "China Legal Watch" in early November, after an investigation into reports that the site's staff had been selling fake press cards, said Wang Qizhen, an officer of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, yesterday.
Police apprehended an individual they said was the ringleader, Ge You. They also apprehended five accomplices. They then went to Luoyang, the capital of Henan Province, to arrest two other suspects.
The eight have been charged with fraud and forging official documents.
It is alleged that, claiming to be journalists, they blackmailed enterprises and local government bodies following cases of medical malpractice and industrial accidents.
The fake journalists carried their own fraudulent press cards, police said. Other cards were sold for 5,000 yuan (US$730) to 15,000 yuan.
Wang did not disclose how many people or how much money was involved in the case.
Last January, Lan Chengzhang, an employee of the Shanxi office of Beijing-based China Trade News, was beaten to death at an unlicensed coal mine in the northern province by eight thugs hired by the mine owner.
Lan and a colleague, who were apparently not fully-fledged journalists, were allegedly trying to extort money from the owner.
Late last month, the General Administration of Press and Publication said there was evidence that 58 people were involved in taking bribes from a coal mine in the northern province of Shanxi to cover up the death of a miner.
Twenty-eight of them were posing as reporters.
Xinhua
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