Outspoken Journalist Has Fingers Chopped Off

BEIJING — Unidentified men chopped off two fingers of a reporter from one of China’s most outspoken and progressive newspapers in an apparent reprisal against his articles, a colleague and another newspaper said on Friday.

The specific reason for Wednesday’s attack on Wen Chong, a journalist with the Southern Metropolis Daily, was unclear.

But violence against reporters, mostly those who report on crime and corruption, is becoming increasingly frequent in China, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said on its Web site, www.cpj.org.

In the latest attack, the men broke into Wen’s home in Zhongshan city in southern Guangdong province, beat him up and chopped off the middle and index fingers on his right hand, a newspaper editor said by telephone.

“Our reporters have been attacked before. Our stories are relatively critical so it’s easy to offend certain evil powers in society,” the editor said. He declined to give further details.

{snip}