Economics and politics
Edward Cody wrote in the Washington Post about an entrepreneurial way to evade Chinese censors and reduce corruption. Who says that opening up the economy won't create political change? Hu Jintao, that's who. "We'll see." say the free market capitalists.China's Muckrakers for Hire Deliver Exposés With Impact
"Xu Xiang, a 37-year-old reporter, showed up in [Qinglong, a] Sichuan province town in December, tasked with investigating allegations that officials had forced residents off their farmland. Over two days, he interviewed farmers and local authorities, taking time to view the gleaming white chemical factory and the long rows of unoccupied stores that have replaced many of Qinglong's rich green rice paddies.
"In January, Xu posted an article on his Web site, China's Famous Reporter Online Investigations, alleging corruption. By March, according to delighted farmers and less delighted local officials, the former Communist Party secretary for the surrounding county, the local land administration chief and several other Qinglong officials had been arrested in an investigation by the party's Discipline Inspection Commission that is still underway.
"'Of course, we were very happy to hear the news,' said Shuai Changqing, one of the farmers who led the fight against local officials.
"The farmers, it turned out, had more than a small role in making the news. One of their own had hired Xu as a reporter, for a negotiated fee of $265.
"What happened here in Qinglong was typical of a new kind of journalism that is emerging in response to the Chinese Communist Party's suffocating censorship... With no more investment than a computer and a taste for taking risks, several dozen Web-based investigative journalists have set up sites and started advertising their willingness -- for a price -- to look into scandals that traditional reporters cannot touch...
"Party censorship also extends to the Internet, which is policed by an elaborate computer system and an army of snoops who monitor what Chinese people read and say online. But that censorship comes after the fact..."
Labels: China, economics, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:29 AM
1 Comments:
The opposite side of muckraking journalism for hire is perhaps not fabricating or publicizing unpleasant news for pay. That alternative is often called blackmail or extortion.
Xinhua reported that blackmail was another bit of entrepreneurial journalism.
Beijing reporter charged with extortion
"A Beijing journalist and another man have been charged with extortion after allegedly seeking money from a city firm in exchange for withholding publication of unfavorable news...
"Xiong and Mao are accused of extorting 150,000 yuan (19,500 U.S. dollars) from Beijing Xiangguo Trade Co. Ltd. on July 7 last year in exchange for not writing negative news about the company..."
Post a Comment
<< Home