21世紀網主編等人涉嫌新聞敲詐被拘
Chinese police have detained eight people, including journalists from one of China’s top business dailies, for allegedly blackmailing and extorting large sums of money from businesses.
中國警方拘留了包括國內頂尖財經日報之一的記者在內的8人，他們涉嫌敲詐企業，向企業勒索鉅款。The chief editor and deputy editor of the 21st Century Business Herald website have been detained along with several other staff members, according to state media reports based on statements from Shanghai police.
官方媒體根據上海警方的聲明報道稱，與《21世紀經濟報道》同屬21世紀報系的21世紀網的主編、副主編以及其他幾個員工已被拘留。
Some of the people, who were not all identified, were from two public relations companies that allegedly worked with the paper’s website to extort large payments from companies to publish positive news or suppress negative news.
被拘留的人大多未被點名，其中一些人來自兩家公關公司，他們涉嫌與21世紀網勾結，向企業敲詐鉅款，作爲發表正面報道或壓下負面報道的交換條件。
The case is one of the biggest to target the media sector since the ruling Communist party launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign in late 2012.
此案是自執政的共產黨在2012年末發起全面的反腐敗鬥爭以來，瞄準媒體行業的最大案子之一。Several senior executives and high-profile anchors from China Central Television, the state broadcaster, have also been detained for alleged corruption in recent months.
最近幾個月，官方的中央電視臺的幾名高管和知名主播也因涉嫌腐敗被拘留。Media organisations are rife with corruption in China, where journalists are paid a pittance and the practice of taking bribes, known as hong bao (literally “red envelopes” full of cash), is often built into their compensation structure.
中國的媒體機構充斥腐敗行爲，新聞從業人員薪酬微薄，收受被稱爲紅包（裝滿現金的紅紙信封）的賄賂往往是他們的薪酬結構的一部分。Extremely tight control over traditional media and the internet by the Chinese government and the powerful propaganda department often leaves idealistic journalists disillusioned.
中國政府和權勢極大的宣傳部門對傳統媒體和互聯網極其嚴格的控制，往往讓理想主義的記者幻想破滅。In this year’s World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, China ranked 175th out of 180 countries.
根據記者無疆界組織(Reporters Without Borders)編制的今年世界新聞自由指數(World Press Freedom Index)，中國在180個國家中排在第175位。“Media power is monopolised [by the state] in China,” said Mo Zhixu, a prominent political commentator.
“在中國，媒體力量是（被國家）壟斷的，”知名政治評論員莫之許表示。“If we had free media, then companies would not be so vulnerable to this sort of extortion.”
“如果我們有自由的媒體，企業就不會那麼容易受到這種敲詐。”According to one person who worked several years ago as an intern at the 21st Century Business Herald’s website, certain editors there openly discussed plans to extort money from companies in exchange for suppressing negative reports.
幾年前曾作爲實習生在21世紀網工作的一名人士透露，那裏的某些編輯人員公開討論向企業勒索、作爲交換爲其壓制負面報道的計劃。“At one of the meetings I attended they were trying to get some funding for the website and some editors came up with an idea to do some negative stories about foreign investment banks,” said the person, who asked not to be identified.
“在我參加的某一次會議上，他們試圖爲網站搞到一些資金，一些編輯想出的主意是，做一些有關外國投行的負面報道，”這位不願具名的人士表示。“There was general agreement that this was a good idea because the website could then offer to kill the stories if the banks bought lots of advertisements.”
“當時大家都認爲這是一個好主意，因爲網站隨後可以提出，如果相關銀行購買大量廣告，就會封殺這些報道。”The person did not identify the journalists involved or the targeted banks and did not know whether they paid to have the stories stopped.
這名人士並未點名指認參與的新聞從業人員，或者指認哪些銀行被當作靶子，也不知道這些銀行後來是否付款壓下報道。In a previous internship at another paper, the person said they would often be sent to public relations events for the sole purpose of picking up the hong bao cash payments on behalf of full-time reporters.
該名人士稱，此前在另一家報紙實習期間，實習生經常被派去參加公關活動，唯一任務是代表正式記者領取紅包。In the case of the 21st Century Business Herald’s website, police began investigating late last year after receiving several complaints.
就21世紀網而言，警方是在去年末接到多起投訴後開始調查的。Yesterday, the newspaper declined to respond to inquiries from the Financial Times but issued a statement confirming that several staff from its website had been taken away by police on Wednesday evening and that it would “actively co-operate” with the investigation.
昨日，該媒體機構拒絕迴應英國《金融時報》的詢問，但發表一份聲明，證實網站的幾名工作人員週三晚上被警方帶走，並稱其會積極配合調查。
