Press Authority to "train" Journalists

Sounding the death knell on investigative journalism in the country as it intends to provide "training" on journalistic best practices.

Lasting for three months until the end of 2013, the program will be provided for free (yay!) and beleaguered hacks at state owned news outlets will be expected to take an exam to get a press pass valid for 2014.  As you would expect from such a program, topics included are "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "The Marxist View on Journalism", with things like journalism ethics and accuracy and all that other less important stuff at the bottom of the list.

At the end of August, the Poltiburo ordered all journalists to attend classes on Marxism in an effort to remind journos that they're employed to provide positive advertising for the CCP, and not allowed to go around investigating stuff and then reporting it without permission.

The program echoes the Seven Baselines for a Clean Internet, which also placed political interests above any of that bothersome fact-checking.  Conversely enough, the idea of improving journalistic standards so that we don't get anymore stories about fake vaginas, or porn being passed off as news, or pictures of spaceships from Battlestar Galactica fansites, or articles from The Onion being reprinted verbatim as news, or satirical pieces from The New Yorker being plagarised as news (that's enough. Ed.) hasn't crossed anyone's mind

Liu Hu: Investigative Journalist Arrested

An investigative journalist who accused senior party members of corruption has been formally charged on suspicion of "fabricating and spreading rumors".

Accusing deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce Ma Shengqi of negligence on his Weibo account, Liu shared a mass of information that accused higher level party cadres of corruption.  The posts were subsequently deleted following Liu's arrest.  Earlier this year, the journalist's lawyer had said that because the usual catch-all accusations ("subverting state power", et al) don't apply to messages posted online, it was unlikely that his client would be charged with "disrupting the social order".  Thanks to the tireless work of Xi Jin PIng and his anti-rumor mongering lawmakers, that's pretty much what happened, and Liu was promptly charged with spreading unverified rumors online.

Once again undermining the anti-graft campaign that Xi has made his mission this year, no-one's really sure what's going on when it comes to, well, the fight against corruption.  Self regulation within the Party certainly hasn't worked very so far, and Chinese whistle blowers are having the frighteners put on them for taking the initiative and posting messages of suspected graft online.  The fact that now journalists are considered fair game will pretty much hobble the Chinese press even further, leaving the CCP with little in the way of oversight other than it's own Disciplinary Committee - an organization that has already caused at least two deaths investigating officials.

Related articles

• Chinese reporter detained after accusing official


• Chinese-American billionaire blogger held on 'sex charges'


• Chinese reporter detained for 'rumours'


• Chinese reporter detained after accusing official

Chinese Police Open Fire on Tibetan Protestors

There's some confusion over reports that Chinese police opened fire on a group of Tibetan protestors in Biru county.  While human rights organisation say that 60 people were injured in, Chinese authorities have denied that there was any protest, and that anyone was injured.

"Security forces started beating the Tibetans, causing severe injuries, deployed tear gas and fired indiscriminately into the crowd," it said.

The shooting in Biru county left two protestors in critical condition, it added. One named Tagyal had a broken femur while another called Tsewang was hit in the jaw.

Both human rights organisations report the same, but a curt "no protest, no one injured" statement from the authorities in the region say otherwise.  The confrontation came about following requests from the Chinese that Tibetan households fly the Chinese flag to mark the October 1st National Day.

 

Party Official "Couldn't Stop" Three Day Wedding

An investigation has been launched into a deputy village chief from the Beijing suburb of Qingheying after it was reported that his son's wedding lasted for three days, and cost somewhere in the region of 1.6m RMB.

Stating that he was "well aware" of the Party's rules concerning lavish overspending on exactly this type of celebration, Ma Linxiang said that the bride's family paid for the epic wedding party, and that he couldn't stop them.  Ma admits that he spent 200,000 Yuan on a party that lasted two days in his village, but the one on Beijing was hosted at a convention centre at the Olympic village and included a couple of celebrities, and a troupe of performers.  When asked about the fleet of luxury cars involved, Ma said that they were just "borrowed" for the occasion.

The investigation continues.

China Kid's Cultural "Malnutrition": Movies to Blame

There are times when you wonder if Chinese people know that they actually live in China.  Take, for example, Zhao Baohua's piece in the People's Daily, where he bemoaned the fact that there aren't enough movies for Chinese kids these days.  According to her, the lack of homegrown child-friendly films means that the next generation (some 300 million of them) won't have much in the way of a cultural identity, and that the reliance on American imports will lead to cultural "malnutrition".

Addressing the problems, Zhao says Chinese kids' films should be more creative in cultivating upright values in their target audience and get away from being too shallow and childish in their spiritual essence.

It's easy to blame media for the lack of cultural values in China, mostly because it seems to spend much more time raising Chinese kids that their parents do.  The naive implication that Chinese movies get produced in the same way that American movies demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the grip that SARFT has over media production in China - especially astonishing considering that the author of the op-ed is a movie critic.

Boahua seems to have completely ignored the uncomfortable truth that SARFT, when it wants to, is quite capable of taking control of what movies get screened where, so the idea that part of the blame lies with the owners of movie theatres just doesn't hold water.  Chinese people just don't like Chinese movies the way they are made now.  Statistics from the last foreign movie blackout show that audience attendance went down 9% in the first month - over two months, SARFT's shortsighted attempt to boost Chinese movie revenue actually resulted in a loss of nearly $200 million.

What is partly to blame is the lack of any kind of decent parenting in China, and a government that focuses way too much on finding ways of controlling the hearts and minds of it's people, rather than getting on with the job that it's tasked with.

Related articles

• "Chinese Animation Getting Better" - So Says Chinese State Editorial


• Chinese movie recorded officially in Hausa set for airing [Premium Times]


• Chinese movie recorded officially in Hausa set for airing

Shock News: Chinese Infrastructure Unable to Cope with Chinese People

A wise man one said that anyone dumb enough to want to be in the military should be allowed to. In China, anyone who ventures out from under the bed during the National Week Holiday Golden Period (or whatever it's called now) deserves all they get.

Chinese tourists who were apparently dumb enough to go Jiuzhai Valley National Park expecting to get away with their souls intact this week got more than they bargained for when, er, they couldn't. In shock news, the usually bulletproof Chinese transport infrastructure ( can we sure about that? Ed.) went into complete meltdow.Some 4000 tourists were stranded at the nature reserve and the congestion became so bad that local military commanders had to be drafted in to help.

The last of the tourists didn't leave till 10pm and, typically of the Chinese, they demanded that refunds from the ticket office, instead of blaming the pisspoor local government management.

Mine Explosion Kills Seven in Jiangxi

While most most of China drinks the night away celebrating the founding of the People's Republic, festivities were cut short in Fenngcheng this morning as news came of the death of seven people in a mine accident.

State run media agency Xinhua reported that four people were killed immediately when's gas explosion ripped through the mine at around 5:45am. Workers were mining coal at a depth of 2847 feet underground, and hopes for any survivors were dashed as reports of high levels of gas came out.

Jiangxi is located in the south east of the country, and, while it's relatively rich in mineral resources, the province has the lowest wages in China. Serving as the production base of rare earth mineral extraction in China, a number of officials were arrested this year for running illegal mining operations. Going for as much as 400,000rmb per ton, the precious metals are at the center of a major tightening of regulations in a increasingly corrupt sector of industry where safety concerns are often implemented as an afterthought.