Newspaper denies unethical coverage of Yao Beina's death
- By Li Jingrong
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 24, 2015
The Shenzhen Evening News responded Thursday to controversy about the alleged involvement of three of its journalists in secretly photographing the late pop singer Yao Beina during postmortem surgery to donate her corneas.
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People mourn late singer Yao Beina in Shenzhen. [File photo] |
In a long article entitled "The Truth About the Coverage of Yao Beina's Cornea Donation," the newspaper totally rejected a series of Internet rumors that have been circulating since the singer's death on Jan. 16, insisting that its reporters "didn't dress as doctors, didn't secretly photograph the body of the deceased, didn't shout 'freedom of the press,' and didn't push Yao Beina's mother to the ground."
It also published an editorial entitled "Why We Have Been Keeping Silent," which explained that, "In order to avoid more malicious Internet speculation, to allow the deceased to rest in peace and to not add unnecessary grief for the relatives of the deceased…the Shenzhen Evening News decided not to discuss the coverage process until Yao Beina's memorial service ended."
Accounts from the reporters involved
The article published Thursday by the Shenzhen Evening News said that, "Several days of malicious speculation have completely diverted the focus of Yao Beina's cornea donation and deeply hurt all the medical staff who have actively contributed to human organ donation and the journalists who have worked hard on breaking news reporting."
Zhao Qing, one of three reporters involved, argued that, "I was carrying a large SLR camera on the site, so it was obvious at a glance that I was a journalist. How could I have secretly photographed the scene?
"We had no need to take pictures of the body of the deceased. It is just common sense that this kind of picture will have no place in the print newspaper or on our website," Zhao said.
"What we shot was the surgical process of the organ donation and the solemn scene of people paying their last respects to the deceased. This is not rare, and the Shenzhen Evening News was not the first to be involved in this.
"We were wearing normal clothes during the whole surgery process with cameras in our hands, so where could we find a doctor's white coat to deliberately disguise ourselves? If Yao's family members or doctors had asked us to leave we would have done so. We had no need to behave in a sneaky way," Zhao continued.
Zhao said Doctor Yao Xiaoming, who conducted the cornea removal, asked him not to publish the pictures he had taken. Yao's agent Bo Ning simply asked him to delete all the pictures, which he did in Bo's presence.
"The room was very large, so our conversation sounded loud. But there was no dispute in the whole process, and nobody shouted slogans like ‘freedom of the press.'"
Li Fei, another reporter, said he had shot some pictures on the site, too. "Zhao Qing was called out. He didn't even have any confrontation with Yao's relatives, let alone push Yao's mother to the ground."
Li explained that Yao's agent also asked him to delete all his pictures. "I said ‘okay' and handed my camera to him to let him do the deleting," Li said.
Chen Yu, the third reporter involved, agreed with his colleagues, saying, "I always thought I was there to help in the work."
"Zhao Qing took photos of the people presenting flowers. Some people didn't think that was all right. Doctor Yao explained that Zhao was only shooting the surgery work and had no ill intent. In the end, they still didn't feel comfortable, so Zhao let them delete the pictures. They also deleted the pictures Li Fei shot. But nobody came to me, and nobody asked me what I was doing there."
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