Police in Wuwei, Northwest China's Gansu Province, confirmed on Monday that they have detained three journalists from Gansu-based newspapers on suspicion of blackmailing the local government.
An officer from a police substation in Wuwei's Liangzhou district confirmed to the Global Times on Monday that the trio is being detained, adding that more information on the case will be released once the investigation is completed.
The journalists were detained around January 8. The Liangzhou police substation said that the three reporters from Lanzhou Evening News, Lanzhou Morning Post and Western Economic Daily blackmailed the local government in joint interviews, news site caixin.com reported on Monday.
The journalists' families said that they have been informed of the detention, said caixin.com.
Tan Chunping, a Shaanxi-based journalist who was the first to report their disappearance on Weibo on Friday, said that Lanzhou Evening News journalist Luo Huansu could not be reached on her mobile phone. Tan claimed that Chen Hu, a Liangzhou police officer, approached him via phone and pressed him to delete his posts concerning the trio.
