Justice will not served until all Zoomlion culprits are held liable

Last Friday, a Hunan court sentenced Chen Yongzhou, a former journalist with a Guangzhou-based newspaper, , to 22 months in prison for defamation and bribery. Chen was detained last October and charged with "damaging the commercial reputation" of Zoomlion, a state-controlled construction equipment manufacturer, after he wrote reports accusing the firm of falsely inflating its profits and other financial problems.

The Changsha-based company denied the allegations.

Last year, took the bold action of running two successive front-page editorials calling for Chen's release. But it apologised after Chen made a public confession on CCTV, saying he had published, in exchange for money and fame, stories about Zoomlion offered by a third party. Two newspaper executives were sacked.

The case comes amid a concerted nationwide campaign against the fabrication and spread of "online rumours" to strengthen media controls. The crackdown sparked fears among journalists and intellectuals about freedom of the press.

Such concerns are not groundless, if one takes into account the Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders, which has grouped China, in recent years, among the least free countries which also include Iran, Syria and North Korea.

However, this is only one side of the coin; Chinese journalism is also increasingly losing the people's trust, partly due to the pervasive practice of "rent-seeking". Hu Shuli, a Chinese media heavyweight, admitted that rent-seeking is "an illness infecting the whole industry". Yet, when she called on her fellow journalists to draw a lesson from Chen's case and exercise some discipline, she attracted criticism and mockery for not being able to speak out for freedom of the press.