A journalist serving a 13-year jail term for reporting about a bogus irrigation project has been released five years early to official acclaim for his determination in fighting against corruption.
Gao Qinrong (
Such developments rarely win a mention in China's state-controlled media, given political sensitivities over Beijing's violations of freedom of the press and other civil liberties.
Yet, Gao's case is being touted as evidence of the country's willingness to empower the media to help fight corruption.
"That the local reporter Gao Qinrong was framed and imprisoned after revealing the frightful spectacle of local corruption is a highly irregular situation," the state-run newspaper Southern Weekend said.
"Why should media today have to face this problem or that problem when reporting on the problem of corruption?" it said.
Gao was not immediately available for comment on yesterday.
The authorities' motivations in highlighting Gao's case were unclear.
"His release is hardly a sign of reform or of relaxation, if anyone is suggesting such," Arnold Zeitlin, a media consultant who teaches journalism in China, said yesterday. "After all, the state took away eight years of his life on trumped up charges, on which so many others still are jailed."
China's leaders have been orchestrating simultaneous corruption crackdowns in Beijing and Shanghai.
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