Cheng Yizhong: “Collective Evasion of an Obvious Issue”
After the death of Chengdu 49 middle school student Lin Weiqi, many people gathered in front of the school involved to demand the official release of the truth.
Cheng Yizhong, former editor-in-chief of Southern Metropolis Daily and the first editor-in-chief involved in the creation of Xinjing Daily, said, “When I was (editor-in-chief of Chinese media), the authorities’ control was already like this. Whenever an event happened, the official ban ran much faster than your reporter. Before the journalists were there, all ten bans came over or called you directly. Only then there were people like us …… and such editors and reporters ……. After so many years of purge and suppression, such people do not exist anymore.”
Cheng Yizhong observed that the case evolved into a “super communication event”, and finally Xinhua News Agency, CCTV and other official media seem to raise sharp questions and views on the disposition of local authorities, “but everyone also avoided the obvious question, the extremely obvious answer: why every time you encounter a similar Why is it that every time there is a similar emergency or natural or man-made disaster, the authorities first try to silence and suppress public opinion, and then take the foolish approach of sneaking around and trying to cover it up?”
The answer is simple, Cheng Yizhong said, because China’s “facts” are determined by a “unipolar ruling mindset that only allows praise but not criticism” and only “pursues a super-stable structure.
“In such a situation, it is impossible to have any voice to question the leaders. The People’s Daily and Xinhua News Agency have made many rumors, told many lies and caused many natural and man-made disasters throughout history. Now all the media in China have become the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, how can we believe them? There is no reason to believe it!”
After the Chinese official media’s exclusive investigation to “restore the truth,” Chinese netizens are asking more questions: If the truth is so pure, why did they cover it up in the first place? Why did the family members who cried so hard at the beginning stop talking? Why did the key video always have a reason to disappear or not exist? In addition, why are the people and independent media unable to question and criticize?
“People like us”
Chengdu resident Xie Junbiao said in an interview with this station on the 13th, “In fact, why is this matter boiling over, is that there are too many examples of this before, key camera bad ah, key film missing ah ……, every time to engage in this (trick), like every time you cry wolf, and now even if you are true. People also do not believe that ah. The people’s distrust of the official, is a long-standing accumulation, every time is this routine.”
A netizen who claimed to be a journalism student, Hammlittlemin, shared on Weibo on the 11th that he went to Chengdu 49th Middle School that evening to cover the photo shoot on his own initiative and was finally treated violently by the police and asked to delete the photos.
“I’m now sitting on the ground editing this content …… just now I’m walking and crying, I want to go tell something, but no ability. I don’t want this to be covered in gauze, I don’t want this to be forgotten.” He wrote.
For now, the account has been deleted. But several photos he recorded of protesters at the scene holding white flowers and begging for the truth have been screenshotted and circulated by netizens.
After the death of Chengdu 49 Middle School student Lin Weiqi, many people gathered in front of the school involved to demand the official release of the truth. (Screenshot from Weibo)
Chengdu citizen Xie Junbiao, who was arrested and beaten at the police station on the 11th, said he has been “concerned” for the past two days, including the army of 50 cents who harassed him online and branded him a “foreign power”, as well as the public security unit.
“The police station continued to call me over the past two days, asking where I was. I also called my friend, let my friend persuade me not to go to the entrance of the school, this is the meaning of ……. So I will not go well, and then go to them again to provoke the hair.” Xie Junbiao and some reluctantly said, “I just went to the school gate to take a picture, I did not say anything was pulled to the police station, but also beat me. These actions do not the more people question what you are officially concealing?”
At the same time, the local police through the official media to dispel rumors that there is no gag order, the net rumors that “the school told students to keep their mouths shut” and other news is not true.
Deng Jianguo, head of the Department of Communication at Fudan University’s School of Journalism, wrote on Weibo that without facts, there is no clear boundary between responsibility and right. Facts are the foundation of rationality. Eliminating facts will surely eliminate rationality and bring the ultimate danger.
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