Focus Media apologizes for mobile phone spam

Beijing Times
March 20, 2008

Beijing water delivery tricycles must be sealed
The large headline is about new rules in Beijing that pedal-powered tricycles used to deliver large bottles of distilled and mineral water for drinking must put the bottles in a sealable carrier box or container when delivering.

Focus Media apologizes for spreading spam
Focus Media (分众传媒) is the company responsible for most of the flat screen TVs that display advertising next to elevators in apartments and office buildings across the country. Flush with cash after their IPO on Nasdaq last year, Focus Media has been acquiring other media properties, many of them as annoying as their flat screens.

In the last week, Focus Media has been accused of being responsible for most of the SMS spam that plagues China's mobile phone users. On March 15, (International Consumer Day), a CCTV program criticized Focus Media's subsidiary Focus Wireless for making and spreading messages without customers' consent.

In response to these accusations Focus Media CEO Jason Jiang (江南春) issued a formal apology.

Construction accident kills two (photo)
The front page photo shows a construction site at which two workers were killed by a steel girder that fell from 13th floor of a uncompleted building in Fengtai District in Beijing yesterday morning.

Slave workers rescued
33 forced laborers, among them 26 mentally disabled, were found and rescued by police in Harbin. Six suspects were arrested. The slave workers had been forced to work on a construction site.

Beijing Opera goes to class
Beijing has initiated an experimental program in 22 schools to teach students to appreciate and sing Beijing Opera. The experiment, which may be rolled out nationally, has been the subject of quite some controversy.

Other headline stories include:

• A university female student who gave birth in a university toilet; the baby died soon afterwards.
• Investment companies' income from investing in the stock market will not be taxed.