In November 2017, Chen Jie, the chief reporter of The Beijing News, gave a public speech in a meeting, recalling his career as a frontline reporter over the past ten years . To this day, since joining the “Beijing News” in 2003 and becoming its subordinate visual reporter in 2005, he has been performing his duties for 17 years. Listen to him talk about what is professionalism and the perseverance of the media, why say no Obedience is a human virtue.
This article is from WeChat official account:Yanshulou (ID: yanshulou2019), author: Chen Jie, head Figure from: vision China
This is Chen Jie, the chief reporter of The Beijing News.
There have been reports of the Tianjin explosion, the “cancer village” in Taoyuan, Hunan, and the “cliff village” of Atuliel in Sichuan…
I have encountered various threats and temptations, but in the face of professional beliefs and human conscience, I chose not to be afraid.
I once asked an old professor:
So many problems in society, there is a lot of inertia to change, how to change?
He answered: Let the question surface and make it “have to” change.
Then face the real dilemma honestly, find a solution to the problem, and jointly promote the progress of this society.
In 2003, the “Beijing News” was launched in Beijing, and I went to Beijing to apply for a job. The interviewer was Wang Yuechun, the current editor-in-chief. In ten seconds, she flipped through the scrapbook and award certificate that I had prepared carefully. She glanced at me and said, “That’s all you have?”
I was very desperate at the time and felt that I was out of action.
She asked me what else else, and I gritted my teeth and said, “I am in good health.”
I said that I can do 1,800 sit-ups in an hour, practice fighting, catch thieves, fight robbers, help the police catch suspects—this is still the case.There are more than a dozen such examples later. At the time she heard it and said: “Oh.”
Then I packed up the scrapbooks, left the newspaper office in despair, and left Beijing after buying a train ticket. When the car arrived in Shijiazhuang, a girl from the agency called me, and she said Mr. Wang asked you to do the entry procedures.
In this way, I became a photojournalist for The Beijing News.
Many years later, Wang Yuechun told me at a party that she said why she chose to let Chen Jie enter the Beijing News? She took my fancy to my health.
She said that when the “Beijing News” started its publication, it must be very difficult in Beijing, and it needed someone who dares to work hard to open up the situation.
Wang Yuechun’s choice is right. why?
Since I entered the Beijing News in 2003, to 2004 and 2005, there were a series of major incidents such as air crashes, shipwrecks, and mine disasters in China. I always appeared on the first scene as quickly as possible. , Is the reporter with the most exclusive news.
The media in Beijing became very nervous when they heard that I was there, and they even sent many reporters to follow me.
In July 2005, the editor-in-chief of the visual department said to me: “Chen Jie, I am too tired.” He brought a team of more than 70 people. He said that you helped me manage the photography department, as the deputy editor of the visual department, in charge of more than 20 photojournalists.
When I heard: I became an official so soon, in fact, I feel very happy, and the treatment is good. Afterwards, I went from deputy editor to editor in chief for about nine years. During these nine years, I was not happy in life. Because I gradually left the passionate time on the front line.
In the course of this nine-year period, I constantly put myself on the shackles, suffering from gains and losses, cowardly, and felt that many things were hollowed out.
As you all know, a reporter must be on the front line. He has confidence when he has been on the front line for a long time.
There is a strange phenomenon in the Chinese media: ordinary reporters, for example, after these college students graduate, you do a good job in the newspaper, you may become an associate editor in two or three years, and some may go to other jobs or Be the editor and so on.
In this case, there will be a phenomenon of frontline reporters: after many excellent reporters arrive at the management level, there is a lack of excellent reporters on the front line, and they are usually new college students running to the front line.
So in July 2014, I chose to leave the post of editor-in-chief and return to the frontline as a photojournalist. So far, in two years, my trip has reached more than 300,000 kilometers. I have visited the country almost twice, many times in many provinces and cities.
two
The first thing I did when I left my management position was the report of pollution in the Tengger Desert.
The Tengger Desert is at the junction of the three provinces of Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Gansu. The underground of the Tengger Desert is rich in tertiary residual water. The water below is very precious, and its vegetation is also very rich.
In the place where the desert borders, these three provinces are building industrial parks where they are catching up and surpassing them.
These industrial parks discharge polluted water directly into the desert without any treatment, which not only pollutes the groundwater, but also threatens 8 kilometers away.In the entire Tengger Desert, except for the continued production after a small part of it has been governed, all others have stopped.
The entire Tengger Desert has restored its best state.
The report of the Tengger Desert has also had a huge impact in the legal and environmental circles, including the NGO circle. My circle of friends expanded rapidly and clues swarmed. Since then, I have made more than a dozen reports on major environmental pollution.
I will also pay attention to the pollution problems in some other regions, such as Taiwan and Japan, because the path they follow is similar to that of mainland China. In the past, pollution was a basic method of development. Later, it was gradually treated. It is still impossible to manage.
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In 2011, I entered Japan on the second day of the Great Japan Earthquake, stayed there for fifteen days, and sent back a series of reports on the tragedy after the tsunami.
I pay more attention to its secondary disasters, that is, the secondary disasters caused by the impact of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after the earthquake. In the no-man’s land forty kilometers around Fukushima, this place I entered exclusively.
There are now six thousand people in this place for the later rescue of the nuclear power plant. However, many of them cannot be solved with existing technology, and its pollution still exists.
In the past five years, there has been dead silence here, including this supermarket.
This is Chinese fruit, I also looked at the brand specifically.
This is also a supermarket.
This old man has been taking care of animals in this place in Japan. When I saw him with animals, I felt that his emotions and nature with animals were unparalleled.
four
As you may know about this photo of the Tianjin Big Bang, (won) this year’s Holland Prize includes some domestic awards. This is a photo I took on the third day.
In the following week, half a month, and one month, I went to the scene many times to record the whole process, including the difficulties of this resettlement of tens of thousands of families after the disaster.
The “Beijing News” also sent me multiple versions of reports in this process. So these reports I made are not my personal strength, but the strength of the entire team that supports me.
This report is from Hunan, this place is called Taoyuan.
It has an aluminum factory here, one of the top 500 private enterprises in the world, and the top taxpayers in Hunan Province. The cancer village caused by it still has a lot of water pollution, soil pollution, and forest pollution. No one touches it.
I did a week of investigation and made this report.
After this report came out, the second in command of this company called me and said:
First, you help me remove all the online manuscripts, because the online report is about the cancer village, which stimulates them a lot.
Secondly, I am in charge of the money. No one knows if I call you.
I said, wait a while, wait a while
So, it is very incredible to solve the problem of 30 years in three years.
This place is called Atuler Village, and the residents of Yi ethnic group account for more than 90%. In the past, when the war was turbulent, they worked alone on this cliff village.
I photographed this cliff village on a higher ladder, and the level of the lower staircase is from the middle ladder.
There are seventeen ladders on the road into this village, also known as vine ladders. Some are vertical, the highest is more than 100 meters, and villagers and children go up and down from this place.
There are actually several roads into the village. Among them, one road can only be walked during the dry season of three months, and it is also very difficult; one road may take seven hours; the other road has been abandoned.
Many people have died on these roads, including this ladder. Ten people have died in recent years. I especially want to see it. Then I walked into this place for five and a half hours.
After interviewing this place, I learned that there are 18 children in this village studying in the elementary school below the village. The drop of this elementary school is only 800 meters, but it usually takes three to four hours for outsiders to get in.
The physical fitness of the child is very good. It usually takes three hours to climb very fast like a monkey. Then I filmed the way to school on the ladder.
The man’s name is Chen Guji, and the child is Chen Muhei, six years old. Whenever he picks up his son, he has to tie him with a backpack rope to prevent him from slipping.
This is the way they walk, and there is an abyss under their feet.
I was very scared the first time I left. At that time, in order to make this report, I came down with the parents from the mountain in advance, and then sent the children to the mountain from below and then back down.
Because I usually train and have strong anti-risk ability, I am qualified for the interview work, video, photos, text, everything is done.
This is the way the child carries a heavy schoolbag on his way to school. When I took this picture with a drone, I was shocked.
Later, I said on my Weibo that I hope this photo of mine can impress more people and let more people gather strength to change the status quo here.
I shot it on May 14th and posted it on May 24th. It happened that Vice Premier Wang Yang was visiting Liangshan because Liangshan was the main battlefield for poverty alleviation. After he saw this incident, he asked about it with the state and province.
Later, I interviewed the Secretary of the State Party Committee and the Secretary of the County Party Committee by phone, and made a follow-up report the next day. The secretary of the state party committee stated that he would build a road with escalators in accordance with my opinion.
First, solve the problem of children’s up and down safety; second, let the planning department go to this place to design a road to connect the four cliff villages together.
Actually, here are four cliff villages, with 198 children coming down to study on the mountain. This school is in relatively better condition in the four cliff villages.
On May 31st, I took the four-person report team of the newspaper and the live video report team. We did a seven-hour live broadcast on the first day. From school to Tianti Road, it depends on whether you have repaired it. Where is it broken and where there is no guardrail, I will record all such dangerous places and give solutions.
Because I talked to an expert, the famous explorer Mr. Yang Yong told me many solutions. During the live broadcast, I stated the problems and solutions he said.
From June 1st to 6th, we made ten editions successively to push this matter to the forefront again.
Actually, Cliff Village is only the tip of the iceberg of the entire Liangshan problem. It is also one of the points of the social imaging survey I am doing now. I will use Cliff Village to conduct more local research and find solution.
All our reports are not to criticize the government, but to discuss with the government to find a solution.
Everyone must face the real dilemma honestly and find a solution to the problem, so that we can jointly promote the progress of this society.
As a person in this profession, my favorite is Wilde’s words:
“Disobedience is an inherent virtue of human beings.”
It will become one of the most basic beliefs of my profession.
This article is from WeChat official account:Yanshulou (ID: yanshulou2019), author: Chen Jie