位中国商业记者和当地警方之间的摊牌最后以市政府官员下令警方道歉告终。此事被视为是中国日益活跃的媒体的一次胜利。这名记者因撰文批评当地一家企业而被警方列入通缉名单。
《经 济观察报》的记者仇子明从上个月开始为该报撰写了一系列文章，指控在深圳上市的造纸企业──浙江凯恩特种材料股份有限公司的管理者从事非法活动，包括内幕 交易和侵占公款。7月23日，该公司所在地遂昌县的警方以“涉嫌损害商业信誉”为由将仇子明列入通缉名单。据一位知情人士透露，仇子明和家人因此躲了起 来，以免被拘留。
随着此事通过微博服务在互联网上广泛传播，警方此举受到了普遍指责。周四下午，管辖遂昌县公安局的丽水市公安局在网站上发布通告称，因刑事拘留的决定不符合法定条件，责令遂昌县公安局立即撤销对仇子明的刑事拘留决定，并向其赔礼道歉。微博在中国越来越受欢迎。
凯恩特种材料股份有限公司坚持否认它有不道德行为，仇子明对其指控的真实性未能得到独立渠道的证实。未能联系到仇子明发表评论。
面对公众的指责，当局的迅速退缩被部分人士称作为是媒体的一次胜利。在中国，政府官员和企业常常试图利用他们的影响力压制负面消息。
南京大学新闻传播学院教授杜骏飞说，这肯定应被视作是公众意见的胜利，它标志着媒体，特别是新媒体越来越开放。在当今的互联网时代，媒体采取更大胆的行动以及公众在互联网上表达自己的意见已经成为推动社会前进的一种机制。
数 十年来，中国媒体通常对宣传当局亦步亦趋。但过去十年间，越来越具有商业头脑的媒体开始逐步报道一些丑闻和腐败案件。由于互联网的普及，媒体报道受到更广 泛的关注。中国已经拥有约四亿网民。尽管中央政府仍然拥有决定报道内容的最终权力，但实际上只要调查性报道不针对最高领导人，不质疑共产党的一党执政，中 央政府通常会采取容忍的态度。
在仇子明一案中，《经济观察报》少有地发表了公开声明，对当地政府把仇子明列入通缉名单的行为发起挑战。声 明说，在报道过程中，相关当事人和记者多次受到利诱、威胁。知情人士透露，为了阻止相关报道，凯恩特种材料股份有限公司曾向仇子明和《经济观察报》许诺， 将分别提供给他们数千和数万美元。
凯恩公司发言人说，公司从未向仇子明和《经济观察报》行贿；公司的确要求当地警方对损害其声誉的文章进行调查，但未要求当局针对仇子明采取措施。他说，我公司一直依法经营。未能联系到遂昌警方发表评论。
许多一直追踪仇子明事件的中国网民对这一决定表示支持。新浪微博用户Piao Sang称这一消息是公信力的胜利，但也是执法当局记录上的又一个污点。
A showdown between a Chinese business reporter and local police who put him on a wanted list for articles criticizing a local company ended with city officials ordering the police to apologize, in an episode viewed as a victory for the country's increasingly feisty media.
Qiu Ziming, a reporter for the Economic Observer, wrote a series of articles for the newspaper starting last month that accused managers at Zhejiang Kan Specialty Material Co., a Shenzhen-listed paper manufacturer, of illegal activities including insider trading and embezzlement. On July 23, police in Suichang County, where Kan Specialty Material is located, added Mr. Qiu to a list of wanted criminals for 'damaging a company's business reputation.' Mr. Qiu and his family went into hiding to avoid being detained, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The police move prompted widespread criticism, as word of the affair spread over the Internet through Twitter-like microblogging services that are becoming increasingly popular in China. Then, on Thursday afternoon, the public security bureau in Lishui City, which oversees Suichang County, issued a notice on its website announcing that the Suichang authorities would be required to apologize and to remove Mr. Qiu from the list because the detention order didn't meet legal requirements.
Kan Specialty Material has steadfastly denied wrongdoing, and the merits of Mr. Qiu's accusations couldn't be independently confirmed. Mr. Qiu couldn't be reached for comment.
The rapid retreat of authorities in the face of public criticism was hailed by some media advocates as a triumph in a country where government officials and corporations frequently use their clout to try to suppress unpleasant news.
'Definitely, this should be considered a victory for public opinion, and a credit to the increasingly open media, especially new media,' said Du Junfei, a journalism professor at Nanjing University. Bolder actions taken by the media and expression of public opinion on the Internet 'have become a kind of mechanism that pushes society forward in today's Internet era.'
For decades China's media generally marched in lockstep with propaganda authorities, but in the past decade an increasingly commercial-minded media have stepped up reporting on scandals and corruption. That reporting is also more widely read, thanks to the Internet, which now has some 400 million users in China. While the central government still ultimately has the power to dictate coverage, in practice it often tolerates investigative coverage provided it doesn't target top national leaders or question the Communist Party's monopoly on power.
In Mr. Qiu's case, the Economic Observer took the unusual step of releasing a public statement challenging the local authorities for putting Mr. Qiu on a wanted list. The statement said that 'journalists and others were repeatedly threatened and offered inducements' leading up to the publication of Mr. Qiu's articles. The person familiar with Mr. Qiu's situation said Kan Specialty Material offered the reporter thousands of dollars in cash, and offered the newspaper tens of thousands of dollars, not to publish the stories.
A Kan Specialty Material spokesman said the company never offered bribes to Mr. Qiu or to the Economic Observer. The spokesman said that the company did ask the local police to investigate articles that were harming its reputation, but that Kan Specialty Material didn't ask the authorities to target Mr. Qiu. 'Our company has always operated business based on the law,' the spokesman said. The Suichang County police couldn't be reached for comment.
Many Chinese Internet users who had followed Mr. Qiu's story expressed their approval of the decision. One user writing under the name 'Piao Sang' on the microblogging website of Sina.com called the news a 'victory for public credibility.' But the user added that this was 'also another blemish on the record of law-enforcement authorities.'