Journalists get smacked down attempting to cover Pudong fire

Did you happen to look to the Pudong skyline for capitalist inspiration yesterday only to see it shrouded in smoke? The fire broke out at a construction site related to the Tomson Seaview Gardens, among Pudong's ritziest pieces of real estate, and eventually covered an area of 70 square meters before firefighters were dispatched and put it out. What you didn't know, however, is that journalists, among them photographers and reporters from Shanghai's Morning Post, got harrassed while trying to do their job, with at least five security people pushing them around and threatening to beat them up. One unlucky photojournalist got flipped to the ground while the security guards tried to strip him of his camera. The reporters tried to get to the bottom of this with the "help" of the Pudong police, and finally managed to get one of the vice-managers of the site to come out and promise that they the journalists would be compensated for damages to their persons or equipment, and would also be allowed free rein to do their jobs. However, this vice-manager was somewhat unwilling to call the five security guards back and either make an open apology to the reporters or else bring them into the police station for questioning.

Photo courtesy of Xinmin Evening News website.