A reporter's arm was broken when he was attacked on Monday while covering a fatal industrial accident in Guangzhou's Baiyun district.
Zhu Chunyu from Guangzhou's Southern Television said he had also received death threats from the person in charge of the construction site.
Zhu and other reporters arrived at the site after a worker was killed and another seriously injured after falling from a 10-meter-high shed in Yunchengxi Road, Baiyun, at about 11 am on Monday.
The shed suddenly collapsed as three workers were on top of it removing a billboard.
Zhu and his colleagues were prevented from covering the accident when they arrived at the scene. The man in charge of the site also said he would beat Zhu to death if he reported on the incident.
He tried to grab Zhu's camera and clutched Zhu's neck when the reporter refused to leave.
Zhu's right arm was seriously injured and he was taken to the First Hospital Affiliated to Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine where an X-ray showed the arm was broken.
The man in charge of the site was detained and taken to a police station by officers who arrived at the scene. Police sources say he comes from East China's Jiangsu province.
The investigation is continuing.