A journalist from China Central Television (CCTV) was arrested by a district procuratorate in Shanxi province on Thursday on a charge of accepting bribes, the Beijing Youth Daily reported on Monday. The journalist, who was only identified as Li, worked for a CCTV program featuring legal affairs, the report said.

A month ago, she visited the Xinghualing district procuratorate in Shanxi to report on an economic dispute.

The procuratorate was reported to favor a local businessman when investigating the dispute and sent prosecutors to Huizhou, Guangdong province to arrest a Cantonese businessman surnamed Wu.

The man was arrested three times and subsequently released for lack of evidence. He was eventually arrested in November.

The newspaper said Wu's younger brother told Li this, and she allegedly accepted unspecified gifts and money from him for passing on this information.

Beijing Times reported Monday prosecutors went to the TV station on Friday morning to get more information about Li, but failed.

CCTV challenged the procuratorate on whether it had enough evidence to arrest Li, especially since she had filed a report against the procuratorate previously.

Calls to the Xinghualing district procuratorate were not answered on Monday.

Cao Shuchang, a partner of Beijing King & Capital Law firm, said: "It is reasonable for Xinghualing district prosecutors to arrest Li, since she was alleged to have committed the crime there.

"However, CCTV's concern also makes sense, for the journalist had a conflict with the procuratorate before, so the Xinhualing prosecutors should not be handling the case."

Zhao Qilong, another Beijing lawyer, wondered whether the procuratorate could charge Li with accepting bribes.

"Generally speaking, only civil servants and employees of State owned companies can be charged with accepting bribes," he said.

"Since Li's status has not been confirmed by CCTV, it is difficult to put her in the same category."

The district procuratorate is said to have shown a letter from the Supreme People's Procuratorate, which authorized it to handle the case.

But the top procuratorate was unable to confirm this on Monday.

(China Daily December 9, 2008)