A Beijing television journalist has been jailed for one year for fabricating a report about cardboard-stuffed buns that embarrassed China during a barrage of food scandals, state media said yesterday.
Zi Beijia (
The court said Zi orchestrated a news report last month that street vendors in the city were selling baozi -- a popular bun-like snack usually filled with meat or vegetables -- containing chemically softened cardboard.
The broadcast came amid mounting reports of shoddy or dangerous Chinese foods, and other merchandise and generated local and international interest.
It also embarrassed the government, which had been denying that China had a big problem with fake or dangerous products and had accused foreign media of sensational reporting on the issue.
Beijing TV, like all media groups under the control of the government, later declared the report bogus and sacked Zi. It said he had instructed a group of migrant workers to make the phony buns while he filmed them.
"The program caused evil social effects and severely ruined the reputation of the relevant commodities," according to the court ruling.
Xinhua news agency said Zi pleaded guilty to the charges, and claimed he was "muddled-headed" when he produced the report.
However there has been some speculation that Zi was in fact a scapegoat and that the report was genuine.
Xinhua was one of the state-run news organizations that had earlier carried reports citing cynical Chinese saying Zi could have been the fall-guy for the government as it tried to squelch embarrassing news.
Several newspapers signed a declaration "to root out fabricated news in all newspapers and rebuild the credibility of the media."
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS