Core Tip: Deng Lie, a driver who was one of the victims of the snowstorm that received aid, expressed to reporters yesterday, "We hope that the Dialogue program and its writers can publicly apologize." He further explained that the reason he did not participate in the Dialogue program was because taking the train to Beijing would have taken too long, and by the time they had made the arrangements, it was already too late. Additionally, the staff of the Dialogue program cited insufficient funds as the reason they could not provide airfare.
Xinhua News Agency reported on April 4th that "We hope that the Dialogue program and its writers can publicly apologize," said Deng Lie, the driver of one of the vehicles that received assistance, during an interview with our reporter yesterday afternoon. He expressed his anticipation for CCTV's Dialogue program to respond to their demands.
He further explained that the reason he did not participate in the Dialogue program was because taking the train to Beijing would have taken too long, and by the time they had made the arrangements, it was already too late. Additionally, the staff of the Dialogue program cited insufficient funds as the reason they could not provide airfare.
Not enough time to take the train
Deng Lie introduced to the Southern Metropolis Daily reporter that not only did they give a certain compensation to Liu Jigui, but after participating in Hunan TV's Lantern Festival evening party, they also entrusted the local government department in Hengyang to deliver a banner expressing gratitude to Liu Jigui.
He explained that the reason he did not go to participate in the Dialogue program was because there was not enough time to take the train, and the other party was unwilling to cover the cost of the plane ticket. Deng Lie said that when CCTV invited him to participate in the program, they did not make the promise to reimburse the airfare as Haiyang claimed. According to his recollection, he first received the invitation call from the Dialogue program two days before the recording —— March 23rd, "It was Sunday, I was very busy, so I asked them to call me the next day. The next day at noon, they called again asking me to take the train over. I said that time-wise it might be too late, so I asked if I could fly over. After they consulted with their leader, they said that the budget was insufficient, so I did not go."
Considering legal action if necessary
The previous post by the author Haiyang of the CCTV director's notes in the post titled "Do the 44 rescued Hubei people really not understand gratitude?" confirmed Deng Lie's statement. At the time, he posted under the username cctvhy: "For every one of the 44 people willing to come to the scene, the Dialogue program indicated that they would reimburse the round-trip transportation costs and the traffic and accommodation expenses in Beijing. Especially for the two key invitees —— the woman holding a child and the injured driver, we even proposed to reimburse their airfare to save their time."
The injured driver was Liu Guangqian, while Deng Lie was not a "key invitee" and therefore did not receive airfare reimbursement. In fact, Liu Jigui, the rescuer, also took the train when returning home from Beijing.
On online forums such as Tianya and Songzi People Forum, many netizens found it unacceptable to refer to "Hubei people" in the title of the post. Some netizens pointed out that without detailed investigation, the Dialogue program staff made moral judgments too easily, which was highly inappropriate. Moreover, the description used by CCTV's director's notes of "44 rescued Hubei people" was suspected of regional discrimination.
The super moderator "Deep Blue" of Songzi People Forum believed that this was not the responsibility of just the author of the director's notes. He said that local netizens hoped that the Dialogue program could issue a public apology.
Deng Lie also expressed that he was even considering taking legal action if necessary, "It is not for us 44 individuals, but for all Hubei people. The reason is that they publicly accused our morality." However, he also stated that before taking legal action, "Of course, we can accept their apology," regarding the method of apology, he did not specify any requirements, "Publicly expressing regret through the network or media is fine."
Regarding this matter, the reporter repeatedly dialed Haiyang's phone yesterday evening, but it remained unanswered. Host Chen Weihong refused to comment on this matter.
Southern Metropolis Daily (This article source: Xinhua News Agency Author: Zhang Dongfeng)