From EastSouthWestNorth Blog: (on Deutsche Welle, translated by ESWN)
DW: Compared to what you do, the bloggers in the Chinese newspaper industry are more careful. Are there clearly specified regulations to restrict the private blogging by reporters? Or is this a case of split personality?
Anti: I really have not heard of any regulations. Many Chinese reporters tend to write only about their daily lives in their blogs. For many reasons such as professional ethics, they cannot go too much into their reporting work because that may damage the interests of their newspapers. Of course, some people have broken these restrictions and written many interesting things about their reporting work.
I feel that among the news reporters, the most popular blogs are Massage Cream (按摩乳) and Southern Yuan Northern Meng (南袁北孟). That is because they are cultural and entertainment reporters and they are less impactful. Another good one is Keso’s technology news and commentary. There are really very few who are influential in current affairs.
(Massage Cream is a blogger who is an editor at Sanlian Life Weekly and who provides spiritual massage to relieve the awkwardness of Chinese news reporters. This is probably the most popular of the Chinese news bloggers.)
Q: It would seem that news workers are more restrained when they blog.
Anti: Since bloggers have individual responsibility, it is actually easy to control.
