Three men, who posed as China Central Television (CCTV)
reporters, were detained in connection with what local police said
was the attempted extortion of a county government in the southern
province of Guangdong.
The three -- Xu Jinfeng, 26, Li Dong, 25, and Guo Yongbo, 22 --
are from Beijing and eastern Shandong Province. They are all
unemployed, according to the police in Heping County, Heyuan
City.
Li Yangda, the party secretary of the county, said he was told
on the morning of Dec. 26 that three reporters were videotaping in
an industrial park in the county.
According to Li, an anonymous caller told him about two weeks
earlier that CCTV would sent reporters to the county and that if
these reporters were not "received" well, "illegal land
acquisition" in the park would be exposed to the public.
"But the park is fully registered and legally operated," Li
said.
Two officials joined the "reporters" in the park in the
afternoon, and asked for their name cards, press credentials or
assignment paper from CCTV, but they had none of these with
them.
The office telephone numbers that the "reporters" produced over
dinner were later found to be false. The county officials called
CCTV to check the men's identifications and were told they did not
work there.
Police detained the three around 9 p.m. on Dec. 26. The
investigation is continuing.
(Xinhua News Agency January 3, 2008)