Police in eastern China yesterday quashed an arrest order for a fugitive graft-busting journalist following a public outcry, in an apparent rare victory for media freedom.
Qiu Ziming (仇子明) had become a cause celebre after his investigative reports on alleged improprieties by a listed company landed him in a nationwide police most-wanted database on suspicion of slander.
Qiu, 28, a reporter with the Economic Observer financial weekly, has been on the run for days after police in Zhejiang Province put out an arrest notice.
But in a sudden about-face, the Zhejiang government said yesterday that the Suichang County police who initiated the arrest order had been told to rescind it.
“The [provincial] Public Security Bureau has ordered the Suichang Public Security Bureau to withdraw the Qiu Ziming criminal detention decision and apologize to him,” a notice on the provincial news Web site said.
It said that the detention order “did not meet statutory requirements.”
Qiu, who is based in the Economic Observer’s Shanghai bureau, published reports last month detailing alleged improprieties such as insider trading by a major battery manufacturer based in Zhejiang.
The company, Kan Specialties Material Corp, based in Suichang and listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, has denied the charges and accused Qiu of slander, initiating the police action.
But Qiu has continued to defend his innocence and demand justice in defiant entries on his Weibo account, a Twitter-like service offered by leading portal Sina.com.
“What I reported is the truth,” Qiu said in an entry on Wednesday, adding that he had “iron-clad” evidence of the company’s wrongdoing and did not fear police.
“This is not over. I will get an apology from the Suichang police,” he said.
Qiu went on the run in recent days after receiving a tip that Suichang police had put him on a national wanted list, the state-run Global Times said.
Since going on the run, Qiu has garnered broad support on the Internet, with his Weibo account gaining 8,000 “followers” and his case generating sympathetic media coverage.
An online poll organized by Sina.com, which drew more than 33,000 responses, found that 86 percent of users viewed the police pursuit of Qiu as “unlawful” and that 98 percent trusted his reports on Kan Specialties.
“Reporters have the right to monitor corporations. He definitely should not have been put on this list,” said Pu Zhiqiang (浦志強), a lawyer who has handled high-profile civil libel cases.
He said he had not seen such a case for years, but added: “I don’t think it’s very likely he will be arrested.”
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