21世纪网主编等人涉嫌新闻敲诈被拘
Chinese police have detained eight people, including journalists from one of China’s top business dailies, for allegedly blackmailing and extorting large sums of money from businesses.
中国警方拘留了包括国内顶尖财经日报之一的记者在内的8人，他们涉嫌敲诈企业，向企业勒索巨款。The chief editor and deputy editor of the 21st Century Business Herald website have been detained along with several other staff members, according to state media reports based on statements from Shanghai police.
官方媒体根据上海警方的声明报道称，与《21世纪经济报道》同属21世纪报系的21世纪网的主编、副主编以及其他几个员工已被拘留。
Some of the people, who were not all identified, were from two public relations companies that allegedly worked with the paper’s website to extort large payments from companies to publish positive news or suppress negative news.
被拘留的人大多未被点名，其中一些人来自两家公关公司，他们涉嫌与21世纪网勾结，向企业敲诈巨款，作为发表正面报道或压下负面报道的交换条件。
The case is one of the biggest to target the media sector since the ruling Communist party launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign in late 2012.
此案是自执政的共产党在2012年末发起全面的反腐败斗争以来，瞄准媒体行业的最大案子之一。Several senior executives and high-profile anchors from China Central Television, the state broadcaster, have also been detained for alleged corruption in recent months.
最近几个月，官方的中央电视台的几名高管和知名主播也因涉嫌腐败被拘留。Media organisations are rife with corruption in China, where journalists are paid a pittance and the practice of taking bribes, known as hong bao (literally “red envelopes” full of cash), is often built into their compensation structure.
中国的媒体机构充斥腐败行为，新闻从业人员薪酬微薄，收受被称为红包（装满现金的红纸信封）的贿赂往往是他们的薪酬结构的一部分。Extremely tight control over traditional media and the internet by the Chinese government and the powerful propaganda department often leaves idealistic journalists disillusioned.
中国政府和权势极大的宣传部门对传统媒体和互联网极其严格的控制，往往让理想主义的记者幻想破灭。In this year’s World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, China ranked 175th out of 180 countries.
根据记者无疆界组织(Reporters Without Borders)编制的今年世界新闻自由指数(World Press Freedom Index)，中国在180个国家中排在第175位。“Media power is monopolised [by the state] in China,” said Mo Zhixu, a prominent political commentator.
“在中国，媒体力量是（被国家）垄断的，”知名政治评论员莫之许表示。“If we had free media, then companies would not be so vulnerable to this sort of extortion.”
“如果我们有自由的媒体，企业就不会那么容易受到这种敲诈。”According to one person who worked several years ago as an intern at the 21st Century Business Herald’s website, certain editors there openly discussed plans to extort money from companies in exchange for suppressing negative reports.
几年前曾作为实习生在21世纪网工作的一名人士透露，那里的某些编辑人员公开讨论向企业勒索、作为交换为其压制负面报道的计划。“At one of the meetings I attended they were trying to get some funding for the website and some editors came up with an idea to do some negative stories about foreign investment banks,” said the person, who asked not to be identified.
“在我参加的某一次会议上，他们试图为网站搞到一些资金，一些编辑想出的主意是，做一些有关外国投行的负面报道，”这位不愿具名的人士表示。“There was general agreement that this was a good idea because the website could then offer to kill the stories if the banks bought lots of advertisements.”
“当时大家都认为这是一个好主意，因为网站随后可以提出，如果相关银行购买大量广告，就会封杀这些报道。”The person did not identify the journalists involved or the targeted banks and did not know whether they paid to have the stories stopped.
这名人士并未点名指认参与的新闻从业人员，或者指认哪些银行被当作靶子，也不知道这些银行后来是否付款压下报道。In a previous internship at another paper, the person said they would often be sent to public relations events for the sole purpose of picking up the hong bao cash payments on behalf of full-Time reporters.
该名人士称，此前在另一家报纸实习期间，实习生经常被派去参加公关活动，唯一任务是代表正式记者领取红包。In the case of the 21st Century Business Herald’s website, police began investigating late last year after receiving several complaints.
就21世纪网而言，警方是在去年末接到多起投诉后开始调查的。Yesterday, the newspaper declined to respond to inquiries from the Financial Times but issued a statement confirming that several staff from its website had been taken away by police on Wednesday evening and that it would “actively co-operate” with the investigation.
昨日，该媒体机构拒绝回应英国《金融时报》的询问，但发表一份声明，证实网站的几名工作人员周三晚上被警方带走，并称其会积极配合调查。
