First, there is China Youth Daily reporter Li Runwen writing about his experiences in covering an explosion in Xiangshui county, Jiangsu province. By itself, it is not that unusual that reporters should face official obstruction in covering emergencies. Even the parade of massage girls into the hotel rooms to persuade the reporters not to report should not be all that unexpected.
What is unusual is the second blog post, which is an internal report by the Xiangshui county party publicity department gloating about how they successfully stage-managed the news coverage, including their views about how to handle uncooperative reporters like Li Runwen. China Youth Daily reporter Li Runwen's blog via Fatianxia blog Yanchang Jiangsu prohibited news gathering, procured girls for reporters.
At on November 27, there was an explosion at the Jiangsu Lianhua Technology Company Limited in Xiangshui county's industrial district. There were dozens of casualties. After the incident, the Yancheng city government carried out an emergency plan to stop reporters from gathering news.
The measures include threats to use force, placing reporters under house arrest, offering monetary bribes and using sex as the bait. But access to the site was blocked by several dozen police officers and security guards.
When the reporters tried to take photographs or gather information, the police stopped them and made them leave. That evening, the various reporters received telephone calls from their respective organizations to leave and use the standard press release for their reports instead. That evening, the Xiangshui county publicity department invited all the reporters to go to an entertainment club to sing.
