Bomb Hoaxes and the Role of the Mass Media in China


By Xiaoyong Yang A


ccording to reports in China’s official media on 28th May 2013, flight MU5705 from Kunming to Beijing was the subject of a hoax bomb threat. The man who made the anonymous phone call was arrested by police six hours later.


“…what role does the Chinese mass media play in the process of communicating details of hoax bomb threats and deterring future perpetrators…”


In the two preceding weeks, 16 other flights in China were also the subject of hoax bomb threats and were forced to deviate from their scheduled flight plans. On 15th May 2013, a 26-year- old man made a series of phone calls claiming that there were bombs on five different flights, all of which were bound for Shenzhen. On 17th May, a 43-year-old man called police in five cities within three minutes claiming that there were bombs on 11 flights, on five different airlines, bound for Shanghai.


These threats are becoming commonplace in China and pose the following questions. Why have there been so many hoax bomb threats in China in the first half of 2013? Is there any specific reason for the increase in the number of threats over the 13 similar threats in 2012? Why doesn’t the criminal penalty deter such hoaxes? Why is the scope of influence of hoax bomb threats becoming larger and larger? And, what role does the Chinese mass media play in the process of communicating details of hoax bomb threats and deterring future perpetrators? It’s not easy to accurately answer any of the above questions, but I still want to


discuss them, starting with the last question concerning the role of the media. Let’s review the basic information available relating to hoax bomb threats in China in recent years (see table below). Here, I want to stress that all the incidents in the table were reported on TV programmes, in newspapers, on the internet and through other public information platforms; that is to say the public learned about the bomb threats from the mass media. From the statistics, we can see that


there were few reports in the media of hoax bomb threats before 2008; reports began to emerge and increase gradually after 2010. Part of the reason may be that the threatened airlines and airports did not publicise such threats. But after the attempted suicidal attack against a China Southern Airlines flight


en route from Urumqi, in Xinjiang, to Beijing just prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the public realised the potentially


grave consequences


of bomb threats against airlines. As such they have become increasingly sensitive to such events and developed a thirst for knowledge which the media has responded to. Further, the public can see from media reports that perpetrators generally received light sentences, if any information on prosecutions was given at all. Since 2010, the media has been


reporting bomb threats against airlines more widely, possibly in order to encourage the courts to punish perpetrators more severely due to the disruption they caused. Yet, in the seven incidents reported in 2010, it was reported that two of the offenders were only detained for seven days; one was sentenced to one year and six months, and the media didn’t carry out follow-up reports on sentencing of other cases that year.


Hoax Bomb Threats Reported on the Internet in Recent Years Year No. of Incidents Reported


with a flight number specified


No. of


Threatened Flights


without a flight number specified


No. of perpetrators arrested


Description of demographic features of perpetrators in media reports


No. of Reports detailing specific nature of the threat


No. of Reports of convictions & sentencing


34 Download your FREE ASI "iPad/iPhone APP" NOW 1 1 1 0 1 1 4 7 6 0 4 1 2 12 5 2 8 4 2004 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 1 1 7 2 13 6


0


1 13 2 13 19


1 1


1 1


7 3


2 11 6 0 7 1 June 2013 Aviationsecurityinternational


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