Chinese journalists have broken stories this year on medical abuses, #MeToo and the environment, leading to government prosecution, consumer uproar and boycott, and disciplinary actions. Here are some of the best investigative journalism work in China in 2018, nominated by practicing Chinese journalists and media professionals, and selected by the GIJN Chinese team.
As the Chinese Communist Party tightens its grip on the news media, investigative journalism has suffered a heavy toll, disappearing from China’s newsrooms. But the recent outpouring of #MeToo reporting in China has signaled the emergence of a new genre of investigative journalism. One that is marked by a wave of user-generated content, with professional journalists serving as aggregators and fact-checkers, in addition to performing traditional reporting tasks such as deep reporting and writing.
The #MeToo wave has emboldened Chinese journalists to start covering rampant sexual abuse. GIJN China has rounded up three incidents out of Chinese universities which are on the frontlines of #MeToo reporting in China.
Despite increasing state-control, violence against journalists and other threats to press freedom, Southeast Asian journalists are increasingly delving into data journalism and other forms of innovative storytelling and creating a greater impact than ever before — thanks in no small part to Malaysian data journalist Kuang Keng Kuek Ser. GIJN in Chinese editor Siran Liang talked ho him about the rise of data journalism in the region.
It’s been a year since “post-truth” was chosen as Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionaries, but the sentiment still resonates. In China, we’ve encountered shifting public opinion, fake news and heavy censorship, but we also saw stories that remind us there are journalists who never give up the pursuit of truth. Here’s a selection of China’s best investigative stories from 2017 — from child abuse to misconduct by major companies — curated by GIJN’s Chinese team.
