China's increasingly profit-driven press may be working to shed its role as a propaganda tool, but the move away from the party line risks the wrath of the country's political machine and heavy punishments for new media barons.
The dangers were highlighted by the Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolitan Daily) -- which scooped the reappearance of the SARS virus in southern Guangdong province last December but this month saw its former director Yu Huafeng sentenced to 12 years in jail and its editor Cheng Yizhong arrested.
Meanwhile, Li Minying, head of the Nanfang group's Communist party branch, was imprisoned for 11 years, charged with accepting 800,000 yuan (US$100,000) in bribes.
Cheng, also editor of a new title, Xin Jing Bao (The Beijing News), before being removed at the beginning of this month, was arrested last Friday by police, who also launched a search of his house.
"Like Yu Huafeng, Cheng Yizhong is accused of corruption. He is also accused of speculating with state revenue," his lawyer, Xu Zhiyong, said.
International press freedom group Reporters Without Borders described the crackdown as "a plot set up by authorities" to keep Chinese journalists in a state of fear.
The ruling Communist Party keeps a tight rein on China's media, regularly muzzling it and ordering it to steer clear of controversial issues.
But with Chinese papers having to survive without government grants in the new market economy and with competition for punters becoming cut-throat, some papers continue to push the boundaries.
"While the Communist Party boasts of having included protection of private property in the Constitution, press bosses and journalists are sentenced to heavy jail terms for having turned their daily into an independent and going concern," Reporters Without Borders said.
Last April, Nanfang Dushi Bao reported how Sun Zhigang, a young designer of Cantonese origin from central China, had died in a detention center after being beaten up.
The case highlighted institutional discrimination against migrants and led to the closing of the detention centers after a public outcry.
Authorities in Guangdong, which had struggled in vain to cover-up the story, decided instead to launch an investigation into the newspaper last June.
Commenting at the time, the province's party secretary Zhang Dejiang said the newspaper "cannot be a supervising power without subjecting itself to supervision," according to Hong Kong weekly Yazhou Zhoukan.
In January, Cheng Yizhong underwent eight hours of interrogation, which preceded a move by provincial propaganda chiefs to clamp down on the local media, generally considered the freest in the country.
This freedom demands a flawless political honesty from editors and publishers, who are effectively civil servants, and stepping out of line brings consequences.
Cheng's wife said his arrest and charges that could be laid against him were linked to his revelations on a new SARS case last December in Guangdong and the death of the designer.
Today's Chinese newspapers are crammed with advertising and advertorials, and journalists are seen as corrupt by a great many of their readers.
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