Lu Yuegang - Journalistic Technique

Journalistic Technique

Lu is an investigative reporter. He writes watchdog reporting. He regards himself as a "hooligan journalist" as he goes mad when he comes across unfairness. He reports social injustice with serious investigation and thorough verification like in the case of "Wu Fang".

The Wu Fang case

In 1988, a poor female villager, Wu Fang, in Xianxi of China attempted to get divorced with her husband, Maoxing, in order to settle the dispute with him. After that, she ran away owing to her husband's strong disagreement.

On 26 April 1998, Wu Fang was cheated by some police officers and village heads and came back to the village where she tried hard to escape from. On that day, three women rushed in suddenly, knocked her down and took off her clothes. Her husband and brother-in-law then used sulphuric acid to attack her face, breasts and thighs in front of the villagers.

Although her husband and brother-in-law were arrested and punished afterwards, it could not put out the fire of anger in Wu’s heart. She believed that the major criminals were still hiding in the dark! Therefore, she did not hesitate and went to appeal.

The case remained a mystery until 4 July 1996, when Wu first met Lu. After serious investigation, Lu claimed, “the Wu Fang's case is not over!” with a piece of powerful evidence. It revealed that some V.I.P. in the city of Hanyuen were playing behind the curtain. Those V.I.P. included Wong Long Yip, the son of the Deputy Mayor of Hanyuen. In August, Lu published an article, "The Strange Affair of the Destroyed Face", in China Youth Daily.

Later, the Deputy Mayor sent a public letter to Lu’s newspaper. He claimed that Lu had violated the Libel Law. Since then, the “battle” between Lu and the privileged was started.

The case had crossed the boundary of a simple court story. "It determines the future of news monitoring in China" said Professor Wang Weiguo (王卫国) - a famous scholar of China University of Politics, "If the China Youth Daily loses, journalists will have to take serious risk whenever they want to reveal the dark side of the society or criticise the privileged afterwards."

Lu tries his best to tell the "truth". He strongly believes that everyone can use their own way to make his or her voice heard.

All of Lu's reports can provide room for the public to reflect and discuss. Lu has lighted up the direction towards the fact that being a journalist is fact-based.

Here are two quotations from Lu regarding the fact and reality:

1) "When reporters face pressure during the process of investigation, only the fact can save their life but not power instead."

2) "Don't be afraid to report any news in China whenever you obtain the fact! However, you will be at risk when you lack reality which is your back-up."

For even more details of the Wu Fang Case, please go to Wu Fang Case Website