Page 114 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

On 30 May, the People’s Daily Online posted a commentary titled ‘How far can

the Sun Zhigang case go’ and stated that:
‘If we want to improve the supervision of law enforcement through the Sun case,
problems that originate in the law can no longer be ignored. The Sun case can
have a final settlement only through revealing detailed facts and providing an
open investigation procedure, and allowing the public’s necessary queries’ (Hao,

14
2003, N.P.) .
This commentary further guided the orientation of public opinion and echoed the
appeal of internet users.

As regards the suspect attackers, the authorities moved quickly to bring the case
to trial. On 5 June, the trial of the thirteen defendants opened in Guangzhou Interme-
diate People’s Court, and they were charged with abusing or inciting the abuse of Sun
Zhigang. According to the published courtroom testimony, nursing workers at the C&R
Centre were enraged by Sun’s screaming for help when relatives of other detainees vis-

ited the centre and ordered eight patients to beat him as a punishment. All thirteen were
convicted and received sentences ranging from three years’ imprisonment to death.
There were other trials on the misconduct of officials, and six public security officers

were convicted of dereliction of duty and given prison sentences ranging from two to
three years. Another twenty-three officials were given administrative punishments.
There were reports and articles published in the print media and the internet ques-
tioning the case as the trial approached. An article in the People’s Daily questioned the
justification of the trial, criticising the lack of crucial information available about the

case. Moreover, the government allowed Xinhua to report on the trial proceedings and
so there were few other reports on the trial. Although a number of journalists attempted
to cover the trial, the three Guangzhou courts that heard the cases only gave permission

to five media outlets to attend. Recording and note-taking was also prohibited for those
who were allowed to observe (Liebman, 2005).
Arrangements in the courts were not fully followed. Protests against the ban on
reporting emerged on the internet with reporters from five central media outlets signing

14 Translation provided by the author.

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