SUN WUKONG A fake story about fake buns
By Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - For China's media, a major event in this unbearably hot summer must
be the exposure by government-run Beijing Television (BTV) of the bogus news
story claiming that some food vendors in the capital used filthy chopped
cardboard as filling for steamed buns.
This certainly will be picked at year's end as one of the country's top 10 news
events of 2007, if no more dramatic scandals of this
nature are exposed in the remaining months.
The fake news story came out at a sensitive time when attention at home and
abroad is focused on problems of food safety in China. This explains why
nationwide panic ensued immediately after the airing, prompting authorities to
launch a quick investigation and make a high-profile clarification.
But it is more important that a lesson be drawn from this unpleasant episode.
While enhancing its crackdown on fake news, it is equally important for the
government to strengthen its supervision of food safety.
On July 8, BTV's Life Channel broadcast on its Transparency Program,
which focuses on exposing fake products, a breaking news story that some
Beijing baozi vendor/makers used soaked and chopped cardboard as
filling. (Baozi, or steamed buns, normally filled with minced pork
and/or vegetables, are a common foodstuff for meals particularly in northern
China.)
The footage, supposedly from a hidden camera, showed some people busy mixing
together chopped cardboard with a smaller portion of fatty meat to make baozi
fillings. The buns were allegedly sold in Chaoyang, a business district in
Beijing.
The report was immediately picked up by the Chinese media. Even the national
China Central Television (CCTV) aired the report days after it broke. The
public was shocked. In the following days, furious comments and accusations
were published in newspapers and pasted on websites. "Who will dare to eat
ready-made food from now on?" many people cried.
Asked by the media, some academics even tried, not very convincingly, to
explain that chopped cardboard, if well processed, could fool the average
consumer with its taste.
The public was in a panic, and few believed this could be just an isolated case
if what was reported was true. And they did have good reason for concern. In
recent years, there have been numerous reports about fake or poisonous food
products. Vegetables contaminated with chemicals, excessive antibiotics applied
in fish farms, hormones added to chicken or pig feed, poisonous additives found
in canned food ...
In short, people are already so badly frightened that, to borrow a Chinese
saying, they are like "birds startled by the mere twang of a bow-string". So no
one appeared to want to think twice about the fake-bun report, leading them to
suspect that all ready-made foods could be problematic.
The report came out at a time when foreign governments and media were focused
on the safety of China's exported food products. Both domestic and
international concerns thus prompted Chinese authorities to launch an immediate
investigation.
On July 18, BTV announced on its evening news that the fake-bun report itself
was a fake story, completely fabricated. It apologized to the public.
After an investigation, Beijing police said the fake-bun report was a
self-directed drama by one Zi Beijia, a BTV freelance journalist. In mid-June,
Zi twice visited a residence in Chaoyang district. Then he brought in minced
pork, flour and cardboard soaked in caustic soda, asking four male
non-Beijingers to make baozi for him. Zi videotaped the process and
later edited the tape. Zi confessed that he made the hoax to secure his
position with "good" performance.
(Some people still believe the bona fides of Zi's report, suspecting
that the prompt clarification, investigation, and arrest of Zi were the
authorities' efforts to cover up the truth quickly. But such suspicions may not
be sustained. It is hard to believe that the taste of processed cardboard could
really fool an average customer. No matter how well processed, cardboard is
hard to chew and swallow. Try it yourself. Moreover, cardboard can be sold for
recycling. The cost of processing cardboard, as the report showed, may be
higher than simply using some locally grown vegetables, which sell very cheaply
in summer.)
An investigation was prompt, and high-profile, and punishments of persons
involved are more severe than ever before. Zi and five others have been
arrested pending a criminal investigation. This is the first time that a
journalist has been put under criminal custody for fabricating a news story.
Six BTV officials, including the producer and editor-in-chief, were harshly
disciplined.
Things didn't rest there. On July 23, the Communist Party's Central Propaganda
Department, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the
General Administration of Press and Publications jointly issued a notice
severely criticizing BTV for broadcasting the fake news.
Normally such a notice would be kept for internal circulation. But this time,
the authorities decided to make it public, mainly because, as the notice itself
said, the incident "has attracted wide attention by the media home and
overseas, making an extremely bad impression on society".
The notice urged all media organs to enhance internal supervision so as to
ensure the truthfulness of their news reports. It warned that media and
journalists that make false news reports will be seriously dealt with. Not only
that, it warned that media that reprinted news stories falsified by others
would also be held responsible.
Obviously, the authorities want to take the opportunity to crack down on false
news reports, which have tended to run out of control in recent years. While
the media are still considered propaganda instruments their operations have
become commercialized or market-oriented. Amid increasingly fierce market
competition, the Chinese media now tend to create sensational news out of
nothing. False or fake reports are no longer a rarity. So it is a good thing
for the authorities to make a cleanup.
It was not until recently that the authorities began to allow the tightly
controlled media to carry "negative" social news reports, such as production of
fake goods, fatal accidents, or official corruption. The media, despite the
problem of false reporting, play an increasingly important, and irreplaceable,
role of public supervision in this regard.
Media reports have helped the government and society to see and deal with the
problems exposed. Take food safety for example. Without the exposure of
scandals by the media, production of fake and poisonous foodstuffs would have
been even more rampant and people's health and lives could have been more
endangered.
False and fake reports are certainly intolerable. But it is also unreasonable
to require a news report to be 100% accurate. So if the toughly worded warnings
in the notice are taken to extremes, journalists may be scared off from
exposing any more scandals, and media supervision could cease to function. This
would be like "giving up eating for fear of choking", as a Chinese saying puts
it.
Therefore, a common task facing both the Chinese authorities and media is how
to strike a careful balance between cracking down on false news reports and
strengthening the supervision of the media.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
