In an increasingly competitive market, China's press watchdog has banned journalists from their traditional means of making a decent living: accepting cash kickbacks for writing positive reports, and extorting protection money in return for making bad news disappear.
The move comes following the death in January of reporter Lan Chengzhang, who it is believed had tried to collect money from the owner of an illegal coalmine for not bringing his illicit operation to light in print. Lan was beaten to death by a gang allegedly hired by the owner.
It has long been an open secret that corruption is rife within China's press. Officially hailed as the 'throat and tongue' of the ruling Communist Party, and with the newsgathering industry run by the state, journalists are largely seen as government functionaries. With the pay packet of a reporter in the poorer provinces |
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A journalist’s death finally forces Beijing to outlaw press bribes, reports gary jones |
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of China's interior containing as little as the equivalent of £100 a month, the less scrupulous have routinely taken advantage of their semi-official status to demand payments for their gushing words or silence.
The widely publicised death of Lan, an employee at the Beijing-based China Trade News, who was battered with iron bars while heading for a meeting with a mine operator in the northern mining town of Datong, appears to signal the end of the long-running scam, even attracting the attention of Chinese President Hu Jintao, who has demanded the nation's hacks be more strictly monitored and held to account for any unethical practices.
"Journalism is a divine profession, which must not be tarnished by cynicism and greed," Professor Wang Wei, a Chinese media expert at the Communication University of China, told the official state-run Xinhua  |
