The world's leading mainstream media, such as, CNN, BBC and Independent Television blundered in identifying 39 illegal immigrants found dead in a lorry in the British county of Essex recently as Chinese citizens.

A CNN correspondent in China also linked the incident with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, querying why the group had gone to the extreme by endangering their lives in seeking to be trafficked to Britain, when China was claiming to have made great strides over the past seven decades.

However, later, according to British police, the dead were confirmed as Vietnamese, not Chinese.

According to Xie Guoji, a retired journalist and the research fellow of the Research Institute Center of World Affairs, the reporters involved, by not bothering to check the accuracy of information, had gone against the professionalism valued by their predecessors as guiding principles to support their independent role in exploring the truth and rendering a public service.

Since its emergence, the American news reporting industry had promoted its brand of professionalism as an example to the world, said Xie, in a speech at a journalist symposium organized by Beijing Foreign Studies University on Nov. 18.

Xie said repeated reports from media including, the Voice of America, the Voice of Germany and the New York Times, had demonized or distorted the image of China in regard to issues such as, Hong Kong's recent chaos. 

Such prejudice had convinced China of the vital need of establishing a mechanism with independent, ethical and professional standards for the development of its own journalism, he said.

Xie also suggested it was better to seek balance between good and bad in news, which was supposed to promote social transformation and reassure the public with high credibility in times of uncertainties.

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