A video journalist was attacked on Thursday by medical personnel at a hospital in southern China, the founder of which had previously been in jail for arranging for two of his critics to be beaten.

A video of the incident, which took place in Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, shows the journalist, Bai Mang, being punched, kicked, and hit with a trash can.

Bai, a 33-year-old video journalist with the Shenzhen Media Group, works for a TV program called “Legal Views.” On Thursday, the show was reporting on a labor dispute between a nurse and her former employer, the privately owned C.G. Xiao Hospital. The nurse had been dismissed by the hospital but hadn’t received the roughly 8,000 yuan ($1,160) in compensation the hospital was ordered to pay her in labor arbitration.

Bai arrived at the hospital accompanied by a Shenzhen Media Group intern, a lawyer, another journalist, Zhu Can, and the nurse, surnamed Ouyang. An altercation with hospital staff broke out shortly afterward.

According to the video, obtained by Sixth Tone from a Shenzhen Media Group employee, hospital staff accused the journalists of yinao — a word used to describe the frequent instances of patients assaulting or even killing doctors and other medical staff — and threatened that they would face criminal punishment.

The video footage shows the confrontation escalating after Bai’s camera is pulled apart by his attackers. When a woman in a white coat joins the group and points her finger in Bai’s face, he slaps her hand away. “Don’t touch me,” he can be heard saying as he is attacked by other medical staff. The woman can be seen falling to the floor in the scrum.

Bai was beaten by about five people for nearly a minute. One man struck his head several times, and hit him repeatedly with a metal garbage can. Another man in a white doctor’s coat jabbed Bai with an IV stand.

The founder of the hospital, Xiao Chuanguo, had been previously imprisoned for arranging for two of his critics to be beaten into silence. In 2013, one of Xiao’s female employees told media that she had been sexually harassed by him.

In an interview with Sixth Tone, Xiao defended the actions of the hospital’s employees. He said that the doctors and nurses in his hospital were merely defending themselves. “The IV stand was used to stop [Bai’s] violent behavior, not to attack him,” Xiao said.

Xiao wrote on microblog platform Weibo that the woman in the white coat had sustained a concussion from the quarrel. According to financial news outlet Caixin, she is Xiao’s younger sister, and a senior manager at the hospital.

Ouyang, the nurse involved in the labor dispute with the hospital, confirmed to Sixth Tone that she was present at the scene. She said that both Bai and the lawyer were attacked at the hospital, and that Bai’s head was bleeding following the fight. According to a medical report seen by Sixth Tone, Bai suffered a bone fracture in his right hand.

According to Caixin, several people from the hospital blocked the journalists’ path after they had been denied an interview. Hospital staff then attempted to grab Bai’s video camera and demanded to see the group’s press credentials.

Xiao has written several posts on his Weibo account accusing Bai and Zhu of being fake journalists. “They conducted illegal interviews and picked quarrels,” he wrote.

In response to these allegations, Zhu, the other journalist at the scene, on Thursday told China Youth Net, a website affiliated with the Communist Youth League, that she and Bai did not have press cards issued by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television, China’s official regulatory body. She said that they had been preparing to take the exam to obtain their press cards, and that they did have their Shenzhen TV identification cards.

An employee at the publicity department of the Shenzhen Health Inspection Bureau surnamed Xu told Sixth Tone that they would not comment on the case, as it is still under investigation.

This article has been updated to clarify events leading up to the incident.

Additional reporting: Chen Xuhou; contributions: Lin Qiqing; editor: Kevin Schoenmakers.

(Header image: A view of Shenyuan Hospital, which was renamed ‘C.G. Xiao Hospital’ in 2015, Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Nov. 11, 2013. An Kang/IC)