|
|
China's journalists told to stick to truth (2) |
 |
+ |
- |
20:25, July 25, 2007 |
News organizations, journalist associations and media watchdogs should open themselves to public scrutiny by setting up hotlines for the public to report fake news items.
The "cardboard dumplings" item was the latest in a spate of allegedly fabricated reports in China''s media.
A Shanghai-based media research journal, which selects the "top ten fake news stories" every year, lists in its records:
-- A newspaper report in 2006 on street peddlers who injected sweetened water into premature watermelons to gain more profits;
-- A newspaper report in 2005 that cited a Chinese businessman saying that water from Russia''s Lake Baikal would be imported to Beijing, a story later described by a senior Ministry of Water Resources official as totally unfounded and fabricated.
Professor Wang Wei, of the international news department at the Communications University of China, said three factors were to blame for the phenomenon.
First, as market competition in the media grew, a minority of journalists dispensed with ethics in order to trump rivals, he said.
China had more than 2,000 newspapers, 9,000 magazines and 3,000 TV stations, some of which were blind in the pursuit of sales or ratings.
[1] [2] [3] [4]
|
|
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article