A newspaper in Henan Province has been banned by the central government from publishing for a month after it exposed a mine accident cover-up, in which journalists allegedly accepted money from mine operators to keep quiet over the accident.
 
The Henan Business News was banned from September 17 to October 16. The ban, ordered by the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Central Propaganda Department, followed the paper's August 18 report about a mine flood in Henan's Ruzhou city, according to an Associated Press report quoting the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
 
No details of the July 31 mine flood have ever been officially disclosed and it was only previously reported that an unknown number of miners were killed or injured.
 
Fan Youfeng, the reporter who wrote the story in the Henan Business News, said local officials offered each journalist showing up after the flood 500 yuan in "hush money". He took a total of 1,000 yuan on two visits, and gave the money to his office. The news of the bribes attracted more than 500 people to turn up in Ruzhou claiming to be reporters. Fan and his editor, Ma Yunlong, have both left the newspaper, according to a report by a journalism academic forum.

Source: Associated Press (28 September 2005), South China Morning Post (29 September 2005)