Bloomberg, the world lead financial news agency, blocked an article by its own reporters on Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin to prevent 'jeopardising' its position in China.
Although internal editors and reporters stated that they had 'fully edited, fact checked and vetted by the lawyers,' editor-in-chief Mr. Matthew Winkler insisted to pull the story at the eleventh hour.
To justify his decision, Mr. Winkler compared the situation with Nazi-era Germany where some media undertook self censorship to remain in the country. According to Financial Time, a Bloomberg spokesman did not comment on the Nazi Germany reference.
NY Times broke out the story first, without naming Mr. Wang Jianlin.
Insiders said the article became sensitive when it turned out Mr. Wang's business was deeply entangled with members in the standing committee of the Chinese politburo. Wang is known for being the wealthiest person in China with his property valued at $14.2 billion.
Reporting on Dalian based Wang was once considered safe as his big sponsor Mr. Bo Xilai's aspiration to the top position in China ended abruptly two years ago. However, the Third Plenum of CCP which concluded yesterday indicated Bo's legend would carry on despite that Bo would remain behind the bars. Bloomberg must have smelled it coming a few days ahead with its extensive business networkings in China.
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