China reporters probing bridge disaster "beaten"

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese journalists probing a bridge collapse that killed dozens of people said they were harassed and beaten by local thugs, exposing the state-run media's see-saw struggle between control and candour. 

The reporters were interviewing grieving families of those who died when the near-finished Fenghuang bridge, in the southern province of Hunan, fell into a heap of rubble. By late on Thursday, the number of known dead had reached 41 and was sure to rise as searchers accounted for dozens missing.