According to the reports of some enterprises and individuals, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau cracked this mega-news extortion case that illegally obtained huge profits through paid news under the guise of public opinion supervision. According to police investigation, since June 20 1 13, Liu, the editor-in-chief and Zhou, the deputy editor-in-chief of 2 1 Century.com, and some editing and editing operators colluded with financial public relations companies such as Shanghai Runyan and Shenzhen Xin Qilin, and used 2 1 Century.com as the main platform to seek information through public relations companies and industry reporters. For enterprises willing to do "positive publicity", after charging high fees, they will do "positive reporting" by exaggerating positive facts or covering up negative problems. For enterprises that do not cooperate with them, they publish negative reports on 2 1 Century.com and carry out malicious attacks, so as to coerce enterprises to put advertisements or sign cooperation agreements, and units and individuals can obtain high advertising fees or benefits from them.
After preliminary investigation by the police, the case involved dozens of enterprises in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong. On September 3, 20 14, with the assistance of public security organs in Guangdong, Beijing and Hunan, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau organized a centralized operation to arrest the people involved. The case is under further investigation. Collect "protection fee" and "ignore"
Dong Liu, president and suspect of 2 1 Century.com, said in an interview. Subsequently, Dong Liu recruited people everywhere, Zhou Bin was responsible for the news editor of the website, and Mo Baoquan and others were responsible for the advertising business.
When talking about "the protection of relevant public opinion", Dong Liu admitted that "2 1 Century.com belongs to the first-line financial websites in China, with great voice and influence. In order to prevent us from reporting the negative news of enterprises, financial public relations companies will find enterprises and websites to sign advertising contracts and put advertisements, so that we can keep our mouths shut. " It's actually protection money. In order not to be affected by negative news, enterprises have to sign advertising contracts with websites, which is equivalent to signing protection agreements. "Zhou Bin, editor-in-chief of 2 1 Century.com, said.
After the extortion, there was a second extortion.
After signing the contract, the website will hand over the list of enterprises to the reporters in the editorial department, asking them not to write negative news about these enterprises. But some journalists will still write some negative news about such enterprises, and at this time, public relations companies will start the' emergency public relations mechanism'. According to Liu Dong, companies with long-term contracts and good relationships will immediately withdraw their manuscripts; For companies with general and short-term contracts, the advertising department will ask the other party to increase the advertising expenses or extend the advertising time limit under the coordination of public relations companies.
Xiangyun Longfei Company renewed its advertising contract for two years on the basis of the previous "300,000 yuan a year" contract with 2 1 10,000 yuan.
Benefit transfer between public relations companies and media executives
2 1 Century. com collects "protection fees", while financial public relations companies such as Shanghai Runyan and Shenzhen New Kirin also benefit from it. The survival way of financial public relations companies is to "live within our means". Financial public relations company is an extremely important bridge between enterprises and media. In order to make this "bridge" stronger, many financial public relations companies will "public relations" the website media executives.
According to Dong Liu's confession, he also accepted various bribes from different financial public relations companies. For example, at the end of 20 12, Tao Kai gave Liu Dong RMB 350,000 in the name of "Thank you for your care of the company's customers". "2065 438+03- 12, my wife and I went to the United States to see our son, and all expenses were paid by Tao Kai of Hairun Yan Company." Liu Dong said, "In my impression, Tao Kai bought us a round-trip air ticket, totaling more than 80,000, and paid us a car rental and accommodation fee in the United States, totaling more than 70,000."
Media people set up their own public relations companies to make illegal profits.
Shanghai police found out that the relevant managers and journalists of 2 1 Century.com, under the temptation of huge profits, also set up relevant public relations companies privately to make illegal profits. According to the criminal suspect Zhou Bin, Guangzhou Chuangzhong Advertising Co., Ltd. was incorporated around 20 12, with Zhou Bin holding 40%, Mo Baoquan holding 40% and Zhou Min holding 20%. Li Xiaoyun, the wife of Zhou Min and Mo Baoquan, is responsible for the daily operation and management of the company.
Under normal circumstances, there will be some negative posts of listed companies on 2 1 century online. These listed companies find websites through intermediaries, hoping to delete manuscripts. I introduced the middleman to Guangzhou Chuangzhong Company, and Chuangzhong Company signed an advertising contract with the listed company, and then Chuangzhong Company signed an advertising agency contract with 2 1 Century Network. The difference between the two contracts is the profit of Chuangzhong Company. After receiving the money from listed companies, Chuangzhong Company will remit the corresponding funds to 2 1 century website. 2 1 century. com will make some advertisements for these companies and delete relevant negative reports after receiving the funds. According to Zhou Bin's confession, he made a profit of 6,543,800 yuan through Guangzhou Chuangzhong Company.
The reporter went to the front desk of news extortion.
2 1 Century.com reporter and suspect Wang Zhuoming admitted in the interrogation that he collected benefits from companies such as Shengguang Health, Haiyao, Zheng Xiu Pharmaceutical and Hengrui Pharma by writing negative reports. Chen Xiao made an excuse, hoping not to publish the report, but didn't mention the benefits. "So I ignored it. At the beginning of August, 2 1 Century Business Herald published negative reports, and 2 1 Century.com also reprinted related articles. " Wang Zhuoming admits.
Chen Xiao offered to delete the manuscript and demanded compensation. "I gave Chen Xiao the phone number of my brother-in-law Meng Yao and asked them to discuss the withdrawal." Zhuo Wang said, "Considering that 2 1 Century.com published this negative news, I called Zhou Bin again and told him that Shengguang Health would withdraw the manuscript and was willing to pay for cooperation with the unit. Zhou Bin agreed and finally formed an interest chain. "Meng Yao took the initiative to contact Zhou Bin for retraction, and the negotiation was successful. 2 1 Century Net received a cooperation fee of 200,000 yuan, and Meng Hao received 850,000 yuan from Shengguang Health and gave it to me120,000 yuan. " Zhuo Wang said.
The harm caused by the used media is unimaginable.
The case is under further investigation. The suspects in the high wall expressed regret and repentance for what they had done. Dong Liu said, "If people who use the media have bad intentions, the harm will be unimaginable. Take listed companies as an example. If the media cannot report truthfully, or deliberately conceal sensitive information, or deliberately mislead readers, it will damage the entire market order and investor confidence. "
20 10 Since April, 2 1 Century.com has established cooperative relations with more than 100 IPO enterprises and listed companies, charging each enterprise a fee of 200,000-300,000 yuan, totaling 100 million yuan. On September 2065438+2004 1 1, the bureau held a meeting of nearly 20 key financial newspapers and periodicals in its jurisdiction, their presidents and main leaders of the organizers, informed the relevant media about the alleged news extortion, and studied and deployed specific measures to further standardize the news dissemination order.
On 2014 September 12, Guangdong provincial bureau of press, publication, radio, film and television has conducted an administrative investigation on 2 1 century. At the same time, the deployment requires news publishing units, especially financial media, to quickly carry out self-examination and self-correction, so as to effectively regulate the order of news dissemination. In addition, Southern Newspaper Media Group has also sent working groups to 2 1 century website and 2 1 century newspaper to carry out comprehensive rectification.