By David Bandurski — An article in yesterday’s edition of Nanfang Daily, the official party newspaper of Guangdong province, reported that airport security in Guangzhou foiled a pair of terrorists bound for Kunming to carry out a bomb attack. The only problem was that news of the supposed plot came not from security personnel but from “travelers in the airport.” Say what?
The news report follows:

Yesterday morning two men who had packed explosive devices in their luggage with the intention of carrying them onto an airplane were fortunately discovered by security personnel at the Baiyun International Airport and delivered into police custody.
At around 12 noon, security personnel on duty at Baiyun International Airport spotted suspicious devices connected by wiring on an x-ray monitor and quickly intercepted two suspects, including one surnamed Qu, who were in the process of boarding.
Further investigation showed that Qu’s luggage contained explosive devices . . . Security personnel on the scene immediately controlled the two male passengers, and according to travelers in the airport, they were preparing to go to Kunming to carry out a bomb attack.

As the Nanfang Daily story made the rounds on China’s internet, Web users took the reporters responsible for the article to task.

[From Beijing]
How would travelers in the airport know they were planning to go to Kunming to carry out a bomb attack? What a reporter! There’s no doubt this is fake news.
[From Beihai City]
What kind of news is this. I don’t even understand it. What is it trying to say? Is it that security personnel at the Baiyun Airport are really great? Or that these two guys are pigs? Or maybe the reporter is just really bored?
[Chenzhou City]
The reporter just wants to build this up into a story. They write fuzzy intentionally. What a pig!
[From Chaohu City]
What messy news! Just a two-bit reporter trying to scrape together a living!
[From Chongqing]
This reporter definitely didn’t graduate from middle school!!! What the hell is he trying to say? Or perhaps he doesn’t want to say things clearly.
[From 116.55.232.* 2008-08-18 11:47:00]
People need to stop screwing around with Yunnan. Can’t they get Yunnan news straight before they send it out? This is really disturbing.
[From Zhuzhou City]
If you believe anything China’s media comes out with then your IQ’s a bit low ::::::
[From Shanghai]
Oh, these reporters don’t have any character whatsoever. They don’t even know how to be journalists.
[From Kunming]
Is this real or fake?

[Posted by David Bandurski, August 19, 2008, 2:33pm]


David Bandurski

CMP Director

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