Chinese reporter '€˜confesses' on state TV

A Chinese financial reporter detained on suspicion of harming a partly state-owned enterprise’s reputation confessed on national television Saturday that he was fed untrue information about the company and filed unverified stories.

China Central Television aired the footage in which Chen Yongzhou, an employee of the Guangzhou-based New Express newspaper, said greed and a desire for fame led him to publish under his own name stories he now says were prepared and handed to him alleging financial misdeeds by China's second-largest heavy equipment maker, Zoomlion, in exchange for bribes.

Chen's detention has caused an uproar among media professionals, who worry police are overstepping their legal jurisdiction in criminalizing civil disputes.

Legal scholars also voiced concerns about state media airing the confession of a suspect before a court hears the case. Chen has not been charged, as police are still investigating the case.

In the television footage, Chen, 27, was seen with his head shaved and handcuffed and wearing a green vest from the detention center in the central-southern Chinese city of Changsha, where Zoomlion is headquartered.

About 20 percent of Zoomlin is owned by the state, and is listed on the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges with a total market capitalization of more than $8 billion. It is a major tax contributor to Changsha city in the neighboring province of Hunan.

"I willingly admit the crime, and I repent my crime," Chen said. "As for those involved in the case -- Zoomlion, the credibility of the entire news media, my family and the wounds they are suffering -- I am willing to offer my sincere apologies." He also apologized to Zoomlion shareholders.

The state broadcaster said Chen ran more than 10 news articles between September 2012 and August 2013 with fabricated facts saying there had been losses of state assets, abnormal sales practices and false financial reporting by Zoomlion, which caused widespread criticism of the company and resulted in its stock price falling after one particularly damaging report.

Chen said a middleman bribed him to run the stories and that he filed the stories without verifying them. The middleman was not named.

Chen said he was paid $80,000 to report Zoomlion to regulatory agencies in Beijing and Hong Kong.

Following his detention this week, the New Express made rare front-page appeals two days in a row asking the police to let Chen go.

"Please release him" the newspaper printed on its cover in oversized stark black print.

Al Jazeera and wire services