To the usual journalistic armory (famously, ratlike cunning, a plausible manner and a little literary ability), Wang Keqin (王克勤) has added an extra element: The small, red-smudged, battered metal tin that he carries to each interview.
Inside is a sponge soaked in scarlet ink. Like a detective, the 45-year-old reporter compiles witness statements. Then he secures fingerprints at the bottom to confirm agreement.
It is a mark of the thoroughness that has made him China’s best-known investigative journalist, breaking a string of stories that have earned him renown, but also death threats from criminals and wrath from officials.
“The other side is usually much stronger. You have to make the evidence iron-cast,” he said, tapping the tin.
That is not always enough. Last week his boss was removed as the editor of China Economic Times following Wang’s report linking mishandled vaccines to the deaths and serious illnesses of children in Shaanxi Province. Bao Yueyang (包月陽) has been shunted to a minor sister company. Shaanxi officials have claimed the report was wrong; Wang has reportedly said they did not investigate properly, although he declined to comment.
It is the latest case to highlight the zeal of China’s watchdog journalists — and the challenges facing them.
Wang’s CV echoes the development of China’s mainstream media: From life as a propagandist to a role as a watchdog — albeit one on a sturdy chain. He started his career as an official in western Gansu Province in the mid-80s — “a very easy shortcut to wealth and status,” he said, in an interview conducted before the vaccines controversy.
He recalled the propaganda stories he used to churn out and how he cobbled together articles for local media for a bit of extra cash. But as residents sought him out with their problems, he found his conscience stirring.
By 2001 he was “China’s most expensive reporter” — not a reference to his salary, but to the price put on his head for exposing illegal dealings in local financial markets. Soon afterward another report enraged local officials and cost him his job.
“I had problems with black society [gangs], and problems with red society [officials],” Wang said. “I heard there was a special investigation team, [with the target of] sending me to prison.”
Shunned by friends and former colleagues, he was saved by an extraordinary intervention. An internal report on his travails, written by an acquaintance at state news agency Xinhua, reached Zhu Rongji (朱鎔碁), then China’s premier, who stepped in to protect the journalist.
That was in what many Chinese journalists see as a golden age, but in 2004, the authorities responded with tough restrictions on media organizations reporting from areas where they are not based. Though the restrictions are widely ignored, journalists say they have allowed officials to impede investigations and stamp down on the burgeoning of watchdog reporting.
Add Beijing’s drive to promote a “harmonious” image of China and the increasing closeness of economic and political influence, and many are pessimistic.
Some argue that in recent years even state media have offered swifter, fuller coverage of breaking news and touched on more sensitive topics. But to David Bandurski, also of the project, that merely reflects the government’s strategy of actively guiding public thinking.
“Control is moving behind the scenes,” he said. “On the face of it you can do these things, but practically you cannot.”
When the scandal of tainted baby milk broke in 2008, one frustrated editor blogged that his paper had known of the danger but been unable to expose it.
Yet within these constraints, determined journalists fight for — and find — the space to work.
“What decides whether you can do something is not what the law or policy says, but who are you connected to; what someone says at a certain time that gives you cover to go after a certain story,” Bandurski said.
Li Datong (李大同), ousted as editor of Freezing Point magazine in 2006, said the media are able to do more, “not because the government loosened its control, but because the society as a whole is becoming more mature.”
The Internet has also amplified the voice of the mainstream media. Many journalists use personal blogs to publish material censored from their reports.
But journalists know that misjudging the shifting boundaries can damage or end careers, or their publications. And there are new challenges. Zhou Ze (周澤), a journalist-turned-lawyer who is tallying physical attacks and other pressure on the media, said a major concern was officials’ changing tactics to tackle critics.
“In recent years bribery and blackmail accusations have increased,” he said. “When you say it’s defamation, people [ask] what was written in the story and whether it was true. If you say it’s bribery or blackmail, it paints the journalist in a very negative light.”
Readers have good cause for suspicion. Corruption is rife; salaries are low and payment to attend press conferences the norm. Bungs to ensure favorable coverage or bury negative stories are common and have produced “fake journalists,” who threaten to report industrial accidents unless paid off.
Wang fears the bigger problem is “fake news”: propaganda, political or commercial, in the guise of journalism.
In a country where citizens have few ways of holding those with power to account, tough and reliable reporting is all the more essential. Wang has covered topics from land seizures to dangerous mines and the spread of HIV through blood transfusions.
Zhou fears fewer reporters will dare to tackle such issues, and that the public will pay the price. “If reporters’ rights cannot be protected, the rights of ordinary citizens cannot be,” he said.
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