Outrage as China police chase reporter for "libel"

BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in northeast China have travelled nearly 1,000 km (600 miles) to subpoena a Beijing reporter over a story they say libelled a local Communist Party chief, a move described by Internet users as outrageous.

Under Chinese law, libel is a civil offence, not a crime, outside the realm of police unless it "seriously jeopardises social order or national interests".

Zhu Wenna, a reporter for Faren magazine, published a story on January 1 indicating illegal dealings and heavy-handed measures by Zhang Zhiguo, Party boss of Xifeng county in the northeast province of Liaoning, against a critic, the Beijing News said.

Zhang had ordered the jailing of a woman for libel for sending a satirical text message alleging corruption after her gas station was demolished to make way for a market with meagre compensation, according to Zhu's report.

There have been several high-profile cases of Chinese local officials retaliating against authors of satirical text messages suggesting corruption with demotions or even detentions in recent years.

But in some cases the officials have stepped back after outcries on national media and the Internet.

Two Xifeng officials travelled 900 km to visit Zhu's editors in Beijing on Friday, demanding the magazine, affiliated to the state-run Legal Daily newspaper, issue a "clarification" for the "unfounded" report, the Beijing News said.

"Three policemen from Xifeng broke into the room just as I rejected the officials' request, showing a subpoena for Zhu on suspicion of libel," it quoted Faren's chief editor, Wang Fengbin, as saying.

The four pages of comments on www.people.com.cn, the Web site of the Party mouthpiece People's Daily, were almost unanimously critical of the Xifeng officials with some calling Zhang a "local emperor".