Chinese police put business reporter on "most wanted" list

Jul 29, 2010, 6:09 GMT

Beijing - Police in eastern China's Zhejiang province have placed a newspaper reporter on a national list of wanted criminals after he exposed alleged insider trading of stocks at a local company, the newspaper and other state media said on Thursday.

The Economic Observer said its Shanghai-based reporter Qiu Ziming was listed in a national online database of wanted criminals by police in Zhejiang's Suichang county for 'alleged damage to a company's business reputation.'

'We are deeply shocked that our reporter Qiu Ziming has been listed as a wanted criminal due to engaging in standard news reporting in relation to the listed Zhejiang Kan Speciality Material Company,' the business weekly said in a statement posted on its website.

Qiu is reportedly in hiding but posted an online message on Wednesday saying he stood by his evidence of insider trading at the company, which makes paper.

The official China Daily newspaper quoted Qiu as saying company officials had 'tried to bribe him and the newspaper to withhold the news.'

Qiu wrote four reports over the last two months with details of the listed company's transactions and 'how its chief had embezzled state-owned assets' during the reform of the formerly wholly state-owned company, China Daily said.

It said another journalist from the influential Caijing business magazine had exposed insider trading at the company earlier.

The Economic Observer said it believed that Qiu, 'along with all our other journalists, has abided by the principles of objective and fair reporting.'

'In the process of reporting, journalists and others were repeatedly threatened and offered inducements,' it said. 'We strongly condemn the use of public power to suppress public opinion and any threats to the personal safety of media workers.'

The newspaper said it was 'in the process of submitting complaints' to China's media watchdog and other state-run media organizations.

China Daily quoted Tian Zhiqiang, the company secretary of Zhejiang Kan, as saying Qiu's reports were 'false' and that the company planned to cooperate with the police in securing his arrest.

The plans to arrest Qiu follow the sacking of the Economic Observer's deputy editor, Zhang Hong, in March for helping to draft an editorial published by several newspapers calling for reforms to China's residency rules for migrants.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders in May said Zhang's sacking was part of 'a recent wave of sanctions against business media and journalists in connection with their coverage of the private sector.'

'The free flow of business and financial information is still not a reality in China,' Reporters Without Borders said.

Most large Chinese companies remain at least partly state run and maintain close links with local authorities, including the police, who often assist the companies in business disputes.

The ruling Communist Party still tightly controls media content on sensitive political and social issues, but it has allowed China's growing array of newspapers, magazines and websites to report more openly on other topics, including business.