HONG KONG — Oct 27 — A Chinese journalist detained by police from Hunan province for allegedly defaming a state-owned company said he accepted payments in exchange for releasing fabricated reports, China Central Television said.

In footage broadcast as part of a nine-minute report aired yesterday, Chen Yongzhou was heard to say in an interview with two uniformed police officers that the information he released was “absolutely not objective.” Handcuffed and with his head shaved, the reporter for the Xinkuaibao newspaper said, “I’m willing to admit to the crime and repent.”

The report by state-run CCTV and Chen’s televised statement followed two front-page appeals last week by the Guangzhou-based Xinkuaibao, or New Express, for police in the central city of Changsha to release the 27-year-old reporter, who was detained October 18. His arrest has drawn attention to the rights of journalists in China and follows a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court last month that people who post defamatory comments online could face as much as three years in jail.

“No matter he’s guilty or not, there are serious issues with the procedures here,” Abe Yang, a lawyer with Dacheng Law Offices in Shenzhen, said in a telephone interview, referring to the airing of the program and Chen’s statement. “Even if the police believe they have enough evidence, it’s up to the court to decide whether he’s truly guilty.”

Shares drop

In an English-language report yesterday, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted police as saying Chen wanted to apologise to Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co., stock investors and his family and warn his peers to “learn a lesson from myself.”

Chen wrote stories questioning the finances of Zoomlion, a construction-machinery maker based in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. Its shares fell in Hong Kong trading last week after reports of the journalist’s arrest brought renewed attention to the allegations. The stock rebounded 1.8 per cent on October 25 after plunging more than 9 per cent in the previous two- day period.

Zoomlion in February and May denied allegations by the paper that it falsified sales. On May 28, the company said an article accusing it of improperly accounting for sales was “distorted” and “misleading.”

The Xinkuaibao hasn’t responded to the CCTV report on its website or micro-blog.

Soliciting prostitutes

Chen is the latest subject of a police investigation to be shown on state television saying he committed wrongdoing. American-Chinese venture capitalist and celebrity blogger Charles Xue, who was detained in August on charges of soliciting prostitutes, appeared on television the following month and said the charges were true. Xue, who wrote on politically sensitive topics to his 12 million followers, also said he behaved irresponsibly in forwarding comments to his followers.

In July, Liang Hong, vice president and operations manager in China for London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc, said in questioning shown on television that he used a travel agency to bribe officials and hospitals. The company is part of a probe by Chinese authorities into corruption in the pharmaceutical industry.

In its broadcast yesterday, CCTV aired footage of Chen dressed in a detention-centre vest over a check shirt. “These articles were not written by me,” Chen was heard telling the officers. “After they provided me with original drafts, I redid them, and then took to have them published.”

Wealth, fame

Chen was motivated by wealth and fame, CCTV said in its report, citing the police. He was asked by other people, who weren’t named in the report, to release more than 10 pre-written articles under his by-line which “negatively affected” Zoomlion, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of yuan of payments, according to CCTV. He also told the investigators he was paid CN¥500,000 (RM257,700) for notifying regulators of the company’s practices, CCTV said, citing the police.

The stories alleged Zoomlion was involved with “losses” of state assets, irregular revenues and forging sales and financial information, according to the CCTV report. The government of Hunan owned 16.2 per cent of Zoomlion at the end of 2012, according to the company’s annual report.

‘Serious impact’

Police in Changsha received a complaint from the company on September 9, set up the case on September 16, and arrested Chen in Guangzhou on October 18 after “possessing a large amount of evidence,” CCTV said in its report. His stories circulated widely on the Internet and created a “serious impact on society,” according to the police, it said.

Zoomlion filed a complaint against Chen with local police earlier this month, according to a media official who asked not to be identified because of the company’s rules, Bloomberg News reported on October 23.

Xinhua said in its report that Chen was detained “on suspicion of damaging business reputation.” He has worked at the Xinkuaibao as a reporter since graduating in 2009, it said.

CCTV said Chen was “criminally detained” in a Changsha jail. He was taken by two guards to face questioning by police investigators before signing a written statement, it said. A clip of the room showed a slogan written in blue on a white wall stating “extorting confessions is strictly forbidden” and an electronic clock showed a time of 12:36 on October 25.

Propaganda orders

Xinkuaibao last week made two front-page appeals for Chen’s release. The issue should be handled according to the law and reporters should not be first detained and then sentenced, the paper said in its second article on October 24. The paper’s website hasn’t been updated since that date.

China’s media are mostly state owned and regularly receive instructions from propaganda authorities on what to cover, making it unusual for newspapers to make a public stand.

Another journalist at the Xinkuaibao, Liu Hu, was arrested September 30 after posting allegations of wrongdoing by government officials online. His lawyer Zhou Ze said on October 10 he faced a charge of defamation and had been in detention since August 24. — Bloomberg