Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
1 total work
When Deng Xiaoping decreed that the media should henceforth become businesses in the 1980s, he allowed journalists much more freedom than they had previously enjoyed - when they had been little more than spokespeople for the Communist Party of China. A new generation of investigative journalists began to see its task as truthful journalism - exposing corruption and other crimes and offering an independent analysis of society. But investigative journalism in China has never been truly independent from the state and media exposes often result in the punishment of the journalists who undertook the investigation. In this book, investigative reporter Haiyan Wang and award-winning journalist John Lloyd show how investigative journalists in China are increasingly attempting to use their profession as a platform to advocate social and political change, despite the threat of punishment. In doing so, they provide an important perspective on political freedoms in one of the world's fastest growing economies.