Page 110 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

tory of crime. This is tangible evidence for judicial authentication’ (Chen, 2013, N.P.) .
12
However, he also admitted that this point was overlooked in the Southern Metropolis
Daily’s reports.
On 25 April, after an exhaustive investigation, the Southern Metropolis Daily, a
relatively progressive Guangzhou newspaper known for its critical and investigative
journalism, first published a detailed report on the death of the 27-year-old graphic de-

signer. The report was titled ‘The death of Sun Zhigang under the Custody and Repatri-
ation System’ (Liu and Yang, 2010). The report was followed by a commentary article:
‘who is responsible for the unnatural death of a citizen’ (Zi, 2003, N.P.). To start with,

the report revealed that officials ignored the death of Sun Zhigang and stonewalled for
more than a month. The report also described the desperate situation of Sun’s family to
the public. The paper then conducted a series of investigations and overcame various
difficulties and external obstacles. A journalist accompanied Sun’s families to appeal
and collect evidence in these three places: Huangcun police substation, Guangzhou

C&R Transit Point and Guangzhou C&R Centre. Though the officials there treated
them poorly and the last two agencies refused their visit, the journalist and Sun’s fam-
ily managed to obtain a few important documents including the Detainee Registration

Form and the Sanwu Person Registry. It also confirmed the local Guangzhou regula-
tions that Sun should not have been detained in the C&R Centre if his friend had pro-
vided a valid identification card for Sun. There was an editorial along with the report,
which demonstrated that Sun died after being beaten in custody, and it accused govern-
ment authorities of causing Sun’s death (Zi, 2003). It delivered a clear message to the

public that such a tragedy could have happened to anyone and that all members of soci-
ety needed to recognise this fact: ‘In the powerful state apparatus, who is not a nobody?
… Who is not an ordinary citizen?’ (Hand, 2007, p.122).

Although reports appeared in other small newspapers, related reports were not al-
lowed to be published in the mainstream Chinese media. However, news about Sun was
already spreading across the country on the internet. The Southern Metropolis Daily
posted its article to internet portals on the same day as publication (Chung, 2008), and

12 Translation provided by the author.

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