Law urged to shield probing reporters
10/3/2006 10:43
A press supervision law is needed to curb rampant violations of
journalists' right to investigate, and also to prevent malpractices of "corrupt
reporters," said a lawmaker from Jilin Province.
"A mature and complete
supervisory system is needed by every society, but such a system is not fully
established yet," said Wang Weizhong, a deputy to the NPC.
A press
supervision law is conducive to strengthening public supervision of social evils
and other problems, and can also help regulate the supervision practice by the
country's journalists, he said.
"I frequently learned about incidents in
which journalists doing investigative reports or trying to expose social evils
encountered various kinds of obstructions and were even beaten savagely," he
said.
In other cases, "some immoral reporters try to blackmail
individuals or companies with threats of 'negative exposure,"' said Wang.
He proposed a press supervision law explicitly guaranteeing journalists'
right to be informed of and to cover news events, as well as to undertake
investigations, sometimes covertly.
"Those who try to prevent the
journalists from reporting the truth, especially those who resort to violence,
should be severely punished on charges of obstructing public supervision and
denying people the right to know," said Wang.
The law should also define
a "bottom line" for the professional ethics of investigative reporters, he said.
"Any reporter who seeks personal benefit from press supervision or
fabricates reports without substantial investigation or verification should be
expelled from journalism forever, and subject to legal punishment," he said.
Xinhua news
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