(LI SHIGONG)

Where Do We Draw the Line With Online Manhunts?

In early July, a manhunt message posted on dahe.cn, a local Web portal in central China's Henan Province, caused great concern among netizens. In the post, Zhao Guanle, a police officer in Ruyang County who was investigating several ATM fraud cases, provided a screenshot of the face of a young man who was suspected of committing the fraud and asked netizens knowing the man to help the police identify him.

The post said that the screenshot was taken from video footage of banks' surveillance cameras that caught the man on tape when the ATM fraud cases happened.

"From the picture, I could tell the suspect was rather young. Young people like surfing on the Internet. Netizens might have seen him and could recognize him. So I decided to draw on the power of the Internet and netizens to apprehend the suspect to recover the losses of victims," Zhao told local Henan newspapers after his manhunt post became headline news.

Zhao also acknowledged that he had taken after the Wenzhou Police who had successfully apprehended a suspect through an online manhunt, known in China as human-flesh search engine.

Besides finding the criminal suspect through this search method, Zhao also hoped to raise awareness among netizens against this type of fraud.

While many netizens supported Zhao's attempt, others disagreed with it.

Opponents said should the alleged suspect turn out to be innocent, the manhunt could adversely affect the rest of his life. They also said that until the alleged suspect is convicted, he is not yet a criminal, which means that this search method is a violation of his right of portrait.

Li Huayang, a lawyer with the Henan Wanxiang Law Firm, said although police authorities may look for criminal suspects by appealing to the public, law-breaking activities shall never be allowed. For this reason, more consideration should be given when using the human-flesh search engine and any infringement upon personal privacy should be avoided.

In contrast, Li Fang, a lawyer with Henan Shijitong Law Firm, believes the police are allowed to use diversified investigation methods, as long as they do not contravene the law.

Risky business

Che Hao (The Beijing News): Posting information on an official website can only be done by government officials, but in a public forum like the one on dahe.cn, there are no restrictions on who can post information.

Information released on an official website symbolizes public credibility, authoritativeness and corresponding liabilities. Every citizen can trust what is posted and report back to the police if they have information. If an innocent person falls victim to what has been posted, they can claim state compensation. By contrast, the posting on a public forum cannot guarantee how reliable the information is.

In that sense, if this post was initially released on the official police website, it is in effect the government looking for a wanted suspect in accordance with the law. Any post of this nature on a public forum, even if issued by a police officer, is seen as a person acting in their personal capacity and an infringement of the law.

Dang Zi (www.dahe.cn): No matter whether it is justified or not, the human-flesh search engine is in itself a serious violation of a citizen's rights and should be punished in accordance with the law. Even if an ordinary person launches the human-flesh search engine, it should be morally condemned and deemed illegal, not to mention the fact that police officers are supposed to obey the law and maintain social justice.