Newspaper apologises for publishing fabricated news about cabbie and China’s president.

THE Chinese media had a rude shock when Ta Kung Pao apologised for publishing fake news on Chinese President and Communist Party general-secretary Xi Jinping.

The Hong Kong-based newspaper, which is China’s longest surviving paper with a history of 111 years, admitted that its article “Beijing taxi driver: General Secretary Xi took a ride on my taxi” was fabricated.

“After verification, we discovered that it was false news. We are deeply disturbed and extremely regretful.

“Because of the mistakes we made in our duty, we published such major false news.

“We sincerely apologise to the readers,” it said on its portal and microblog.

The newspaper’s clarification came after a confirmation on the fake news by Xinhua news agency, the foremost state-run media in the country.

To make things worse, the article published on the Ta Kung Pao website was reproduced by other Chinese media, including Xinhua itself, Sohu, Sina and many more news portals.

Soon after the Ta Kung Pao’s clarification, most of the articles on Xi taking a taxi ride were removed from the Internet.

The latest fiasco has exposed a lack of supervision and self-censorship mechanism among the fast-growing online media organisations, whereby reproduction of news has become a norm in the industry.

According to the report, taxi driver Guo Lixin claimed that he picked up two passengers near Gulou West Avenue at about 7pm on March 1 and one of them happened to be Xi.

Guo said the passengers told him that they wanted to go to Diaoyutai Hotel and they even spoke about current and social affairs during the ride such as the worsening air pollution problem in Beijing.

He said he did not realise that Xi was his passenger until he turned around to look at him properly.

“I asked him: ‘Did anyone tell you that you look like someone when you are taking a taxi? Did anyone say you look like general-secretary Xi?’

“After hearing my question, he said in a jest: ‘You are the first taxi driver who recognised me’,” Guo was quoted by Ta Kung Pao as saying.

Guo claimed that Xi also asked him how much he earned driving a taxi and asked him for his opinion on the work done by the party and government.

Guo said on Xi’s arrival at his destination, Xi paid 30 yuan (RM14.70) for the ride and wrote a four-Chinese-letter idiom yilu shunfeng (smooth sailing) on a piece of paper for him.

The comprehensive report even came with photos of Guo, his taxi and the paper with Xi’s scribbling on it.

While many Netizens condemned Ta Kung Pao and other media for publishing the false news, others questioned whether the newspaper was forced to admit the news was false.

“Some people say despite the apology made by Ta Kung Pao, it does not necessarily mean that what the newspaper reported was false news.

We should all know what Ta Kung Pao reported was about a Chinese leader and do you think the newspaper would be so daring to fabricate such news?

“Judging by the taxi driver’s detailed narration, the report does not seem to be fake,” said a commentary posted on the gucheng.com portal.

But, there were also some suspicions in the article as the scribbling of the idiom did not have the inscription of the name of the writer and this did not reflect the Chinese leaders’ style.

It was not logical that state-run agencies like Xinhua and People’s Daily did not take the lead to publish such news rather than a newspaper based in Hong Kong, the portal observed.

“Ta Kung Pao used to be one of the most influential media before 1949 and former leader Mao Zedong praised it for having an objective stand. It is still linked to the party and government,” said a Netizen.

Another Netizen said: “I think this is complicated; maybe Xi Jinping should come forward and clarify.”

But, the Chinese people know for sure that meeting or let alone interviewing the country’s top leader would be as difficult as scaling a mountain.

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