Zi Beijia, a Chinese reporter who fabricated a TV news story alleging that Beijing dumpling makers used cardboard as a filling, was sentenced on Sunday to one year behind bars. He was also fined 1,000 yuan for the crime of "infringing upon a commodity's reputation".
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court heard the case in an open court.
According to the court record, Zi, 28, had worked as a temporary employee for the Beijing Television Station in the Life Channel sector before being arrested.
In June 2007, he visited some steamed stuffed bun ("baozi") stands but failed to find any cardboard-filled buns.
In order to advance his career, Zi, under the alias of Hu Yue, then went to the No.13 courtyard inside Shizikou Village, Taiyanggong Township of Chaoyang District. There he requested four migrant workers who had been preparing breakfast "baozi" to make meat buns for him. He lied, promising that he would buy a large quantity of the stuffed buns.
The four meat bun makers were identified as Wei Quanfeng, Zhao Xiaoyan, Zhao Jiangbo and Yang Chunling. They are all from Huayin, a city in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
Later Zi returned to the same venue a second time, bringing cameras, pork, flour and cardboard.
In order to film the process, Zi is alleged to have instructed Wei and his fellow villagers to make the "baozi" by soaking and crushing discarded cardboard he had collected and mixing it with pork. These buns were supposedly fed to dogs.
Zi used a home DVD camera to film the bun making process. He turned in his film report after editing it.
Zi concealed the truth from the Beijing Television Station, enabling his program to be aired on July 8 on "Transparency", a slot of the station's Life Channel sector. The program caused a great public outcry and ruined the reputation of the relevant commodities, according to the court ruling.
Zi pled guilty during court proceedings. He claimed that he had not been thinking rationally when he made his film. He admitted that he had deceived both the Beijing Television Station and their audience.
Zi made a sincere apology to the audience, the Beijing Television Station and all other relevant victims. He advised the journalistic staff to learn from his waywardness and to observe journalistic ethics.
The court ruled that Zi, as a temporary employee of Beijing Television Station, deliberately fabricated news and hid the truth to get his program aired, causing pernicious effects. By fabricating and disseminating fake news he gravely infringed upon the reputation of certain foodstuffs. Due to the seriousness of his crime the verdict was made accordingly.
In another development, the four migrant workers involved in the scandal are suing Beijing Television Station for defamation.
"The Beijing TV station's failure to review the story carefully led to the fake bun scandal, which also damaged the reputations of Wei Quanfeng and three other migrant workers," said Zhang Shilei, a lawyer from Beijing Jingzhe Lawyer Firm, acting on behalf of the four people.
Zhang explained that the four workers had decided to sue the Beijing TV Station instead of the reporter himself because they thought that, seeing as Zi had already been sentenced to one year in prison with a fine, he would be unable to give them compensation.
"Wei Quanfeng and other three who involved in the fake bun story have filed their lawsuit with the Haidian District People's Court, near where Beijing TV Station is located," said Zhang, adding that they were waiting for the court's decision about whether to hear the case.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2007)
