A security guard who forcibly removed a female reporter from the scene of a fire on Tuesday has been fired and his former employer has apologized and compensated the woman over the incident.

Guard fired for roughing reporter up.

Beijing Times

reporter Shi Ce had been at the scene of a storehouse blaze near the Olympic Sports Center on Tuesday when employees from Xinao Property Management Company, which looks after the premises, arrived to stop her and her colleague covering the story.

Shi was dragged outside the gate to the site, Beijing Times reported on March 24.

Guo Zaibin, manager of Xinao Property Management Company, said representatives of the firm visited the newspaper to apologize to both the reporter and the company on Thursday morning.

"It was certainly wrong to carry the reporter away because the media has a right to know what was happening," Guo said.

He added that the fire was small and mainly involved smoke.

Guo said his company had reached an understanding with the reporter thanks to the mediation of the police.

"We paid the reporters 2,000 yuan in compensation on the spot on Tuesday and, as soon as they reported the incident in their newspaper, we decided to fire the security guard who should take responsibility for the dispute," Guo said.

He refused to discuss the reason why the security guard carried the reporter away. Such incidents are not uncommon.

Zhou Xiaopu, a professor from the School of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China, said the fact that there is no law in place to regulate the right to conduct interviews and to protect reporters means similar situations could arise again and again.

As watchdogs of society, reporters need room to work and freedom to monitor its development, she said.

Zhou said many people want to hide things from reporters and that can make the job dangerous.

Some people's profits are protected by hiding the truth, she said.

Zhou added that secrecy can make it hard for reporters to find problems with society and suggest solutions.

"Society needs reporters and media organizations to be a channel to communicate different issues and find problems in society. But the space where reporters work should be safe and spacious enough," Zhou said.