Whenever I tell a Westerner what I do for a living, many are doubtful. "Is there such a thing as a free press in China?," they ask. "Are there really independent journalists?" The answer is yes and no.
Ever since Deng Xiaoping launched his reforms in 1978, China has been moving from a planned economy to the free market. Its media industry is undergoing a transition equally as wrenching. It is also a more complicated process, because the state, which embraces economic reform wholeheartedly, is not certain about how much media reform to tolerate.
Yet the government's attitude to the press is not one of constant suspicion. After it (belatedly) recognized the importance of transparency in capital markets, journalists gained greater freedom to pursue investigative journalism. So, while the line between the permissible and the prohibited has shifted, it still exists. Some of us walk right up to the line, even nudging it every once in a while. Crossing it, however, remains another matter.
Whenever I tell a Westerner what I do for a living, many are doubtful. "Is there such a thing as a free press in China?," they ask. "Are there really independent journalists?" The answer is yes and no.
Ever since Deng Xiaoping launched his reforms in 1978, China has been moving from a planned economy to the free market. Its media industry is undergoing a transition equally as wrenching. It is also a more complicated process, because the state, which embraces economic reform wholeheartedly, is not certain about how much media reform to tolerate.
Yet the government's attitude to the press is not one of constant suspicion. After it (belatedly) recognized the importance of transparency in capital markets, journalists gained greater freedom to pursue investigative journalism. So, while the line between the permissible and the prohibited has shifted, it still exists. Some of us walk right up to the line, even nudging it every once in a while. Crossing it, however, remains another matter.