Nanjing Propaganda Department Curbs Critical Investigative Reporting

In a July 26 directive, the Nanjing municipal Communist Party Propaganda Department prohibited the publication of certain types of articles unless the writer or editor has given the article's subject the opportunity to first "review the article," "check the facts," and "give their opinion," according to reports on the Nanjing Daily and People's Daily Web sites. Entitled "Interim Measures on the Examination and Verification of News Unit Public Opinion Supervision Articles," the directive mandates that when journalists submit a critical investigative report to an editor, they must also submit a copy of the draft that has been signed by the subject of the article. Editors must reject any article not accompanied by a signed draft, unless the journalist can provide "objective reasons" in writing explaining why he or she was unable to obtain the subject's signature. Editors not enforcing this requirement and publishing articles without having received the signed draft have committed a "severe" breach of Party discipline and will be fined one month's salary, the directive says.

In addition, publishers may not reprint an investigative article from news agencies other than the People's Daily and Xinhua, unless they have first confirmed the article's facts with the article's subject. The directive requires publishers to establish an "examination and verification system" to carry out these inquiries, as well as a retention and filing system for all materials relating to investigative reports.

The directive demonstrates both continuing Party control of the news media and a counterproductive approach to handling unprofessional journalism. The directive says that the restrictions are necessary to ensure that critical investigative reports are "fair and objective" and "serve the central work of the municipal Party committee and the city government." As an August 1 editorial (subscription required) in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post noted, however, the requirement that the news media serve China's ruling party precludes it from being fair and objective: "So long as propaganda officials [in China] keep a tight control over freedom of information and prevent journalists from reporting the real news, it is only natural that sensationalism and fabrication will get worse."

According to the South China Morning Post: "Advertorials disguised as news stories are common, as many journalists' salaries are directly linked with the volume of advertising they can pull in. Some hacks even dispense with any pretense by simply charging money to pen favorable stories." The editorial noted that Xinhua recently described the phenomenon as a "social evil," citing commercialization a key factor.

In 2003 and 2004 China's government reformed how it managed the state run media, restricting direct subsidies and prohibiting government agencies from requiring departments under their jurisdiction to subscribe to publications. Without these sources of revenue, thousands of publications were forced to close, and those that remained have had to rely on advertising and circulation. Unlike newspapers in countries whose governments respect freedom of the press, however, newspapers in China are prohibited from publishing critical political investigative reports unless the Communist Party has had the opportunity to screen and censor them. Some Chinese newspapers were able to circumvent local censors by engaging in "extra-territorial" (yidi) reporting - publishing articles about political scandals and corruption that occurred in jurisdictions outside of the city when their headquarters was located. In June 2005, however, the Party's Central Propaganda Department also closed this loophole.

By denying the news media both access to government subsidy for support and the ability to conduct serious investigative journalism to increase revenue, Chinese authorities have, according to the SCMP editorial, forced Chinese newspapers to resort to "sensationalism and fabrication" in order to survive.

The SCMP said that the government and the Party have realized that the decline in journalistic ethics has damaged not only the reputation of the news media, but also the effectiveness of the Party's "propaganda machine," which relies heavily on the news media to control public opinion. Rather than address the root cause and relax restrictions on news reporting, however, Chinese authorities have instead tightened controls on journalists and editors. According to the SCMP, officials have also "started a nationwide campaign requiring newspapers, radio, and television stations to organize study sessions for journalists, to boost their ideological thinking." The SCMP reports that journalists see the campaign as "a means to clamping down on aggressive reports."