From China Media Project:
We’ve written extensively at CMP about the institutional causes of poor media professionalism in China ” from the Lan Chengzhang case to the more recent “cardboard bun” hoax. Anticipating CMP fellow Lu Ye’s talk tonight on media corruption, we return again to the question of the deeper causes of poor ethics, questions that have larger implications for journalism and free speech in China.
Last month, in an article appearing at the online China Media Observation (CMO), scholars Ling Chen and Li Hongbin discussed the now-classic “cardboard bun” hoax, in which freelance TV reporter Zhai Beijia was jailed for producing a fake news report about unscrupulous vendors filling steamed buns with a mixture of meat and cardboard. [Full text]
[Image: A photojournalist poses with workers for hire, via Xici Hutong]