By XI MEITI

Western Media Correspondent

BATON ROUGE (China Daily Show) – Twice-weekly suburban organ of record the Prairieville Tribune has become the latest victim of infiltration by state-sponsored Chinese hackers, the newspaper revealed yesterday.

The news follows revelations that at least three major Western media groups — the New York Times, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal — recently suffered several security breaches believed to originate in China.

“We first noticed web hits begin declining steadily about March 2011,” vice-editor Wilbur Morris told reporters in a prepared statement.

“We now believe this is directly related to a middling review of the Golden Dragon restaurant in downtown Prairieville, published in a February edition of the Tribune.”

For the review, the statement continue, Felicia Jones, the Tribune’s Food and Drink Editor, spent several hours undercover at the Louisiana-based takeaway, sampling the prawn crackers, frozen spring rolls, and other house specialties. In the resulting 496-word article, Jones praised the spring rolls but accused the Cantonese eatery of serving “a chow mein that left this reviewer wondering what happened to the soy sauce!”

Jones (pictured, left) also questioned the lack of soy in the Lucky Golden Dragon’s “eight-dollar ‘Beef in Oytser Sauce [sic],’” writing that “it could do with a little more,” and even suggesting they offer customers a choice of light or dark soy sauce in future.

Morris said that, since the review’s publication, several emails he has sent to staffers have gone unanswered, while an old link to a syndicated article about clam chowder on theTribune’s now simply returns a 404 error.

“I knew something was up. It felt like our computer system had been compromised. I did some research and joined the dots,” Morris told China Daily Show. “When I told the news room my strong suspicions, staff agreed that the system was definitely compromised and this was why so many deadlines had been missed recently.

In the past, media organizations and reporters have been targeted by Chinese authorities as punishment for reporting on sensitive areas, such the finances of the top political leadership. Threats, visa denials, and cyber-attacks are among the range of tools China uses to coerce foreign media to self-censor.

“I contacted the FBI, but they told me they were busy solving crimes,” Morris revealed. “Now that in itself tells you there’s something fishy going on.”

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