Fury after reporters take pictures of singer’s body
Print Edition
A NEWSPAPER has been forced to apologize after its reporters took photographs of a dead singer’s body and it tried to launch a foundation in her name.
Yao Beina became a star when she dazzled the audience on “The Voice of China” in 2013.
Two years earlier she had undergone a mastectomy but a routine check last June found the cancer had returned.
Yao was determined to continue with her career, even to the point of refusing chemotherapy, but her condition worsened and she stopped work in November. She was admitted to Peking University Shenzhen Hospital in south China in December. She fell into a coma on January 9 and died last Friday. Yao was 33.
Doctors removed her corneas for transplant, as was her wish, but the procedure was witnessed by three reporters from the Shenzhen Evening News.
They had gained entry to the mortuary where the removal took place by pretending to be eye doctor Yao Xiaoming’s assistants, according to an online post which quickly went viral.
The post also revealed that the paper was to start a foundation using the singer’s name.
Tens of thousands of comments condemning the newspaper followed on Weibo.com.
On his Weibo account, Hu Qiaohua, the “Voice of China” host, said he would no longer be reading the Shenzhen Evening News.
China Youth Daily critic Cao Lin said the paper had lost face and described its “paparazzi” approach as shameless.
Yao’s colleagues at the China’s Huayi Brothers Music Co were equally angry.
Her boss, Wang Zhonglei, described the newspaper as “very dirty” while publicity director Zhang Liang wrote: “Who allows you, the Shenzhen Evening News and the doctor Yao, to set up such a foundation? Have you ever thought of her family and friends? You two are doing a trade! It is shameful.”
The company said it had told the paper to rescind the notice about setting up a foundation. “We never allow any one to use another’s name for its personal aim. We condemn it,” it said.
In the face of such media pressure, the paper issued an apology on Weibo in the early hours of yesterday saying it sincerely apologized for having caused disturbance and unease to Yao’s family and her fans.
The paper admitted its reporters photographed the scene when Yao had her corneas removed but Yao’s relatives had told them to delete them as soon as they found out they had cameras. The reporters did delete the pictures and Yao’s father Yao Feng had forgiven them, it claimed.
The paper said it had planned to partner with four other groups, including the Shenzhen Red Cross Society and Dr Yao’s eye foundation, to set up the Yao Beina Bright Foundation to help people with eye problems.
But Yao Feng said he hoped his daughter would rest in peace and not be bothered, and thus the paper and the four partners had withdrawn the proposal. Donations it had already received would be returned, it said.
In an interview with news portal Sina, Dr Yao denied unethical dealings with the reporters. “It has nothing to do with me. Reporters have their methods to interview,” he said. “And I am just an active promoter rather than an operator in relation to the foundation issues.”
Meanwhile, Yao’s corneas have been given to a 26-year-old man in Shenzhen and a 23-year-old man in Chengdu. Both procedures had been successful, China National Radio reported.
Yao’s funeral is being held in Shenzhen on January 20 and her father said her ashes would be taken back to her hometown in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province. “She was born and grew up there. She is Wuhan’s daughter and she has to go back home,” he told the Wuhan Evening News.
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