Outrage as China police chase reporter for "libel"

BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in northeast China have traveled nearly 1,000 km (600 miles) to subpoena a Beijing reporter over a story they say libeled 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 jeopardizes 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 meager 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 traveled 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".

"Who has given the Party chief this power and made him so blatant?" asked one commentator.

Xifeng officials have also accused Zhu of not using any balancing comments from local government departments, some of which Zhu said had been unavailable for interviews.

"There isn't a single word of truth in her report, which has seriously damaged Xifeng's image and defamed me maliciously," Zhang, the Party boss, was quoted by the Beijing News as saying.

Critics say local officials in China wield overreaching and unchecked power, including absolute control over judicial organs, which many often abuse.

(Reporting by Guo Shipeng and Nick Macfie; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)