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 almost-finished Fenghuang bridge, in the southern province of Hunan, fell into a heap of rubble. By late on Thursday, the number of dead had reached 41 and was sure to rise as searchers accounted for the missing.