A Chinese reporter who was arrested last week on suspicion of damaging a business ' reputation has confessed to releasing fabricated stories about the company for money and fame , the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Saturday . `` I definitely hope the entire journalist industry could learn a lesson from me , '' New Express journalist Chen Yongzhou said while in custody in an interview distributed by Reuters . `` For myself , if I were given one more chance to be a journalist , I must follow the basic journalistic ethics that are impartial , real , objective and complete to report -- and would not be lured by self interest . '' Chen released more than 10 unverified reports -- from September 29 , 2012 , until August 8 , 2013 -- that centered on `` financial problems '' experienced by the engineering company Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology and resulted in losses for the company , Xinhua reported , citing police . Chen , who is based in the southern city of Guangzhou , apologized to the company , to its investors and to his family , police told Xinhua . He was taken into custody October 18 in Guangzhou by police from Changsha in Hunan Province , where Zoomlion is based , months after the newspaper ran stories under his byline that said Zoomlion had falsified its sales numbers . The state-run company , which did not respond to a call for comment , makes construction equipment . The 27-year-old reporter has worked for New Express since he graduated in 2009 . According to police , `` other people '' paid Chen for the stories , Xinhua said . `` Chen confessed that only 'one and a half ' of his more than 10 reports about Zoomlion were done after gathering information himself , while the rest were made based on provided articles , '' Xinhua said . `` He even published some of the supplied articles on the New Express without reading them first . '' The announcement came two days after the New Express pleaded on its front page , `` Please set him free . '' The move garnered sympathy online and China 's media regulator vowed to protect `` lawful reporting rights , '' according to the state-run China Press and Publishing Media group . The paper said Wednesday that it had checked all of Chen 's stories about Zoomlion and found only one discrepancy : He wrote the company spent 513 million yuan on advertisements , when that money had been spent on `` advertisements and entertainment . '' `` If Brother Policeman can find any evidence of shabby reporting on our part , please make notice of it and we will gladly doff our hat , '' the newspaper said , according to a translation published by the University of Hong Kong 's China Media Project . `` Because we still believe that -- some day , at least -- you will have the same full respect for the law that we have . ''
` ` The entire journalist industry could learn a lot from me , '' Chen says . But his newspaper says it reviewed his file and found only one discrepancy . Police say he was paid for the stories . His colleagues say he could n't afford to wait to take his wife to Pizza Hut .