Chinese Officials Broadcasting Confessions on State TV Before Trials

Move criticized by legal scholars

BEIJING (AP)—The 27-year-old journalist wore a green jail uniform, his head shaved and hands in metal cuffs, when he appeared on national TV and confessed his guilt in bribery allegations. And he had yet to be charged with anything.

"I willingly admit my crime, and I repent it," Chen Yongzhou said in footage aired on the state broadcaster China Central Television. He said he took money while a reporter at a metropolitan newspaper in southern China in exchange for running several stories smearing a company that makes heavy machinery.

It was the latest of several high-profile, televised confessions, a new tactic by Chinese authorities attempting to scrub information they deem harmful, illegal or false from the public domain, especially from the Internet. The confessions have come alongside a propaganda campaign warning against relaying false information, and new penalties for reposting untrue information in social media.