via: xinhua net, read the news here: Rules issued to ensure fair journalism
story 1
"When we do a press conference in Beijing, we give every journalist who shows up a 200 yuan “transportation reimbursement”. I use quotation marks because you have to labor mightily to roll up even a 50 yuan taxi fare in Beijing, and the average ride probably sets you back 20. Clearly, it ain’t all going to transportation." via: image thief
this is too familiar to many company marketing guys in china. in order to have favorable media publicities, many companies have to bribe journalists in various ways, bribery include "reimbursement", "new years party", "luxury items", "daily consumption card", "transportation card", "performance tickets", etc. if you don't bribe when you "should", journalists will impose sanctions against your company, in some disgusting cases, journalists will report your company in a negative way.
story 2
one reporter of a popular shanghai evening newspaper never have dinner with the host company, usually after he collects the "transportation reimbursement", he will go to the next "dinner party" to collect the next "transportation reimbursement". he is notorious in the business because he usually fail to write the articles he promised, so many company marketing guys don't invite him any more.
story 3
many swindlers take advantage of this media corruption for their business, here is a black humor story i experienced last year.
story 4
a friend of mine told me how to deal with one of the most prestigious business newspaper in china - first, smile to them but avoid offering any company information to them, and second, occasionly do some advertisment with them. according to my friend, their advertisers have never been reported negatively, and those who never advertise with them have the highest chance to appear in their spotlight.
story 5
another prestigious business newspaper in china, which also operates such a business called "soft article"(paid publicity reports), deliberately uses an english title - "advtorial" for their "soft articles", in this way, their readers won't understand that these "advetorials" are actually advertisements and will believe what these "advetorials" tell me.
story 6
many academic periodicals charge a "space fee" to those students or researchers who have academic articles to be published in their magazines. having found this is a good way to make money, some of them created "special editions" for such "academic articles". via: 直面社科期刊
conclusions
1) there are three levels of media problems in china: first, media is polluted by money; second, media is restricted and not diversified; thrid, risk of "tyranny of the majority" in media
2) the most urgent issue that is relevant to many people's life is the level one problem
3) it seems to me that the purpose of the Rules issued to ensure fair journalism is to solve the level one problem, or at least part of its purposes. failing to understand this background and labelling the "rules" merely as a "cracking down" seems not fair and is a "one-dimension" thinking.
4) i don't think it will work, the solution exists not in the individual or organizational level