Covering up bad news is not the right response by governments

WHEN A FIRE BROKE OUT at an enterprise in Dezhou in East China’s Shandong province on Wednesday, a local TV journalist tried to report what was happening, but said he was prevented from doing so by a group of men who assaulted him and seized his camera. The version of events given by the local police has aroused widespread doubts, and Xinhua News Agency has called for an investigation by higher authorities to find out the truth:

Who beat the journalist? The local police said it was the company’s employees. But the journalist said that there were at least 20 men beating him up, and they were all wearing police uniforms.

More importantly, although the police said that they returned the camera to the journalist, he said the video of the fire and the scene of the beating had been deleted. Why was the camera in the hands of the police? Who deleted the video? These have aroused further doubts about the version of events given by the police. The higher police authorities have formed a team to investigate the incident and we hope the results of their investigation will be made public as soon as possible.

The law protects freedom of the press, and journalists have the right to report on events. Various levels of local governments are required to assist them in their work.

However, in reality, some local officials are still trapped in the old rigid mindset that “bad news will ruin the image of a city” and often prevent journalists from covering local news when something bad happens. Sometimes they even use violence for that purpose.

Such a mindset is outdated. Almost everybody has a camera on their phones and photos and video quickly spread via social networks.

Local officials’ attempts to hide the truth when something bad happens is against the central leadership’s call for greater transparency in governance.