BEIJING — Police apologized to journalists at a hard-driving Chinese news magazine yesterday after officers earlier tried to pressure them into revealing sources for an article about the detention of people seeking government redress over various grievances.
Top editors and managers at the respected Caijing magazine had refused to give in to demands issued Monday that were accompanied by threats of unspecified repercussions against the magazine for publishing the Sept. 13 article, said lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, who is a legal adviser to the publication.
Editors were told the piece “undermined stability and unity,’’ Pu said.
Yesterday, Caijing’s deputy editor, Luo Changping, said unidentified officers had verbally apologized to Caijing employees and promised no journalist would be punished because of the story.
The police were also investigating the behavior of the officers from the Chaoyang district Internet monitoring department who issued the original threats, Luo said in a posting on his microblog.
Phones in the public relations and editorial departments at Caijing rang unanswered yesterday. Beijing police did not respond to a request for comment.
Caijing is a financial news magazine that has pushed boundaries with China’s censors and chased stories that embarrassed the government.
The expose had described the lucrative business of illegally apprehending citizens who try to file complaints with the central government.
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