Investigative Journalism in China
edited by David Bandurski &
Martin Hala
Hong Kong University Press, 2010
Contrary to the bland title, the eight case studies offered here are written with an eye to such offbeat detail that they quickly take on the pacing of an old-time gumshoe thriller. Here is the journalist happening upon a story (of corruption, of cover-ups, of seedy prostitution rings) that grows and grows. Here is the journalist helped by a stream of helpful lawyers, doctors, witnesses and good Samaritans – and constantly beset by a hideous system embarrassed of its own flaws but seemingly unable to do anything about them.
Of course, the story is more complicated. Since the early 1990s, that system – otherwise known as the Communist Party of China – has actively fostered an increasingly commercialised press. In turn, growing inter-press competition has been an indisputable driving force for the nascent watchdog journalism that does get done. At the same time, the system has attempted to incorporate the press's investigative potential into its own powers. The official idea of yulun jiandu, or 'supervision by public opinion', thus offers a tantalising modus operandi for the press, while simultaneously boxing it into a startlingly problematic situation: if journalists are seen as an extension of state power, how do they report on that power itself?
As it turns out, every journalist, editor and publishing house must individually answer that question. Mostly it seems to come down to not sticking one's neck out before it is time, and understanding that the probable consequences far outweigh the potential rewards. Such 'rules' appear to lead to a lot of self-censorship, at all levels; but they also lead to an incredible tenacity, when the time is right. (Carey L Biron)