Page 2 of 2 Checkbook journalism,
Chinese-style By Kent Ewing
them. Lan's case, which probably played a
big role in prompting the latest GAPP edicts, has
become a lightning rod in the debate over media
reform in China.
The reporter was beaten
to death by thugs on January 10 while
investigating an unlicensed mine near Datong.
Official media initially ignored the story, but it
spread nevertheless. In the end, seven people were
arrested for Lan's murder, and President Hu
Jintao himself ordered a
further probe into the incident. But was Lan
investigating an illegal mine, extorting money or
both?
The China Trade News confirmed that
Lan had been working for the newspaper for two
months. But the mine owner, who allegedly ordered
the beating, and Datong city officials said Lan
did not carry a legally required press card. In
addition, according to the state-run China Daily,
the head of the Shanxi office of the China Trade
News said Lan was not authorized as a reporter but
had undertaken his investigation on his "personal
initiative".
This horrible but ambiguous
incident seemed to crystallize the ongoing debate
over the sorry state of journalism in China. Who
is real? Who is fake? What can be reported? What
cannot?
In reporting the latest GAPP
crackdown, state media have also cited the cases
of four reporters working for other publications
who were detained for extortion last May.
According to Xinhua, the reporters - Wang Qiming,
Meng Huaihu, Bu Jun and Chen Jinliang - demanded
money from "institutions and companies, after they
learned about their irregularities".
The
four, who were employed by the China Food Quality
Newspaper and three other newspapers, have been
denounced by the State Administration of Press and
Publications (SAPP) for bringing the country's
journalists into disrepute and have had their
press credentials revoked.
Their detention
signals the SAPP's heightened seriousness toward
journalistic fraud; ordinarily, the worst
punishment a fake reporter can expect is the
revocation of his or her press card, which was
quite likely a forgery that can easily be replaced
by another forgery.
A 100-day
investigation in the Shanxi city of Luliang last
year demonstrated the extent of the problem: the
city's deputy director of press and publication,
Yang Zhiming, unmasked 80 bogus hacks, and a lot
of them carried press cards.
GAPP has
promised stricter qualification requirements for
journalists and has also vowed to revoke the
licenses of media branches whose reporters engage
in extortion and other illegal practices. That
sounds good.
The problem, however, is that
many of those media outlets are not licensed to
begin with, and the culture of corruption is so
widespread and systemic that no GAPP circular is
going to do much about it. Beyond a few detentions
here and the seizure of forged press cards there,
China's brand of checkbook journalism should
continue to thrive.
Indeed, the central
government appears to have had much greater
success snuffing out genuine investigative
journalism than in combating its depraved
counterpart. Just ask Chen Jieren, who last year
lost his job as chief editor of the Beijing-based
Public Interest Times after the paper was so bold
as to run a story highlighting incorrect English
translations on a newly launched government
website.
Before that, Yang Bin, the
progressive editor of the Beijing News, got the
sack after his paper published reports of violent
land disputes in Hebei province. And last August,
Zan Aizong, who worked for another Beijing-based
paper, the China Ocean News, was detained after
posting reports on the Internet critical of a
church demolition in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
Two other cases involving foreign
publications received international attention.
Zhao Yan, a researcher for the New York Times, and
Ching Cheong, chief China correspondent for the
Straits Times in Singapore, were both jailed in
August on what are widely believed to be false
charges.
Zhao was convicted of fraud and
imprisoned for three years after contributing to a
Times article, published in 2004, correctly
predicting that former president Jiang Zemin would
be replaced as head of the Central Military
Commission by the current president, Hu Jintao.
Ching, who was found guilty of spying for the
Taiwanese government, was jailed for five years.
With an estimated 750,000 reporters in the
country, journalism is flourishing in China;
unfortunately, it's the wrong kind.
Kent Ewing is a teacher and
writer at Hong Kong International School. He can
be reached at kewing@hkis.edu.hk.
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