[ABOVE: The police held the poster farmer Zhou used to stage his fake photo.]

Third in the Fauxtography 101 series.

Zhou, a farmer and now famed Chinese Fauxtographer won’t be going to jail after all.

Welt Online reported, “Last October, he emerged from the woods in Shaanxi with his claim of a tiger sighting, plus dozens of digital photos. His claim was immediately embraced by officials in Shaanxi, who awarded him 20,000 yuan (about US$2,920) and much praise at a press conference little more than a week later.”

Reuters reported, ” Zhou, who had been given a 2 year jail term for fraud and illegally possessing bullets in September, had the sentence suspended at his appeal, Xinhua news agency said.”

Reuters continued, “The court took note of the defendant’s admission of guilt and ‘obvious regret’ and gave Zhou a three-year reprieve, but a 2,000 yuan fine and an order to give back the cash reward were upheld, the Beijing News said in a separate report.”

The Xinhua news service reported that Zhou’s lawyers said that Chinese officials shared in the responsibility for the fraud. Apparently, Zhou’s sighting a rare tiger was “too good to check” for authorities as the news promised a boom in local tourism. Indeed, many government employees were fired after the truth came out.

So how were the fauxtographers caught? What made the Chinese government finally admit the hoax?

Continue reading: “China Tiger” Fauxtographer Spared Prison.

by Rhonda Roland Shearer
image/source: Stinky Journalism