Zi allegedly offered to do a story about poor hygeine at meat bun stalls but failed to find any problems during two weeks of reporting. Facing pressure from his editor, he decided to fake the news, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

The official Xinhua News Agency and the Beijing Daily both reported Friday that the head of Beijing Television, Liu Aiqin, was publicly reprimanded and its editor-in-chief, Zhang Xiao, was given a warning.

One deputy editor-in-chief was given a demerit, Xinhua said, quoting sources the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

The news reports said at least four other officials connected with the program that aired the report had been fired.

"The Communist Party committee at the station met and decided to start deep reforms and educational work using this case as a negative example," the Beijing Daily said.

An official with the general office of Beijing Television, who gave only his surname Li, said Friday that his office had nothing further to add to the Beijing Daily report.

Li referred questions to Zhang Songhua, the station's vice president, who did not return a call from the Associated Press.

Attempts to reach family members of Zi Beijia were not successful. Calls to the Beijing police department were not answered.

In its apology, a Beijing Television news anchor said Zi "used deceptive means to get the footage on the air." No specifics were provided.

Beijing Television explained that an investigation revealed that in mid-June, Zi brought meat, flour, cardboard and other ingredients to a downtown Beijing neighborhood and had four migrant workers make the buns for him while he filmed the process.

It said Zi "gave them the idea" of mincing softened cardboard and adding it to the buns.

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