Sensationalism triumphs over evidence-based journalism

Editor's note: The following article is taken from the Chinese-language "Commentaries on International Affairs." The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Britain's Sunday Times published a story this week by former British journalist and corporate fraud investigator Peter Humphrey, claiming that a Chinese supplier of British supermarket giant Tesco is using foreign inmates as forced labor at Shanghai's Qingpu Prison.

Humphrey, who has served time in prison in China, claims a schoolgirl opened a Christmas card containing a message from an inmate. The alleged message said that inmates are forced to work, and asked whoever finds the card to contact Humphrey.

Reporters from CGTN who visited the factory were told that the printing company does not have any business links with the prison. Factory managers revealed the manufacturing process of the Christmas cards - from printing to packing to shipping - was handled internally by the company and that no foreign individuals were involved.

A statement released by Tesco said that it has suspended production of charity Christmas cards at the Zhejiang Yunguang Printing Company and launched an investigation into the allegations. "We have a comprehensive auditing system in place and this supplier was independently audited as recently as last month and no evidence was found to suggest they had broken our rule banning the use of prison labor," the statement read.

The story soon went viral on social media, and has been exploited as an opportunity by usual suspects to criticize China of failing to respect people's human rights. It was also republished by several other news agencies in the West.

But it's worth noting in these reports that Humphrey is not a neutral party in this story. He and his wife both spent time in prison in China after they were convicted of illegally obtaining and selling personal information of Chinese citizens.

They were deported in 2015 after their jail terms were reduced on compassionate grounds, as Humphrey was suffering from a medical condition. He has since made a name for himself as a professional critic of China's prison system.

Given the lack of independent sources to verify the accusations that Humphrey has made, and the statement from Tesco saying that as recently as a month ago they saw no evidence of wrongdoing, it's disappointing that supposedly objective voices in the media have been quick to lend him a megaphone to amplify his claims.

The rush to publish a sensationalist story to attract clicks for a few dollars has to be balanced with the need to spend time verifying claims, especially when they are as serious as accusations about the use of forced labor. Unfortunately, in this case, it seems that sensationalism has triumphed over evidence-based journalism.