CHINA, NATIONAL, SOCIETY: China’s Top Muckraker Wants To Tell It Like It Is
By Li Mu (Lianne)
"Probe the Truth: News Probe."
On the screen, Cheng Kejie, Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, confessed to taking 41 million RMB worth of bribes, which was soon followed by a court decision imposing the death penalty--the highest-ranking official since the foundation of the PRC to receive a death sentence.
"Who gossiped? I will take care of him!" the head of a county raged in the face of a reporter who enquired about the misuse of public funds of an irrigation construction program.
"I shall appeal to justice till the end of my life," Wailed Li Yufeng. Her son, Fan Li, was wrongly sentenced to death by local authorities.
Every Monday at 10:35 a.m., the real-life investigative TV program News Probe is shown on CCTV 1. Since the first broadcast in 1996, the 45-minute news program has made history in the field of investigative reporting in China. Modeled after CBS's 60 Minutes, it was the first TV program in China to be labeled "investigative," focusing on reporting corruption, injustice and assorted other social problems.
"In our concept, truth stands for facts concealed by power, special interests, prejudices, and is sometimes limited by our social circle and collective conscious," declared Zhang Jie, executive producer of News Probe.
The TV program produced its catch phrase, "Probe the truth," in 2000, when the program reset its mission as independently investigating acts transgressing the public's interests. That is when the program took shape as an independent investigating entity. Before that, its journalists chiefly assisted investigations carried out by the Central Committee for Discipline Inspection and judicial institutions.
"The inspection of the Yuncheng irrigation construction program in 1999 was the first time we supervised local power as an independent media. Since then we have been ever stressing the independence of working journalists," said Zhang.
In 2003, News Probe underwent another transformation that consolidated its position in investigative reporting. "We have raised the motto of 'Doing real investigations,'" Zhang said. "Along with our regular social reporting, we directed our energy to muckraking. Our competition strategy is to make at least one influential investigative program every month with the journalist as the leader. To achieve our goal, we have reformed our evaluation system, encouraging journalists to oppose authorities and do original reporting."
Zhang argued that although the ideology and industrial level of China is different from western countries, it has the same goal of constructing an independent fourth 'power' to supervise society, to safeguard democracy and prosperity. He believes investigative reporting can serve the same role in China.
But tight censorship does not often concede that point, adding to the obstructions of independent investigations. A News Probe director said that the authorities canceled some of their investigation programs. "We are running into a catch-22 between marketing strategy and restraints coming from our state-ownership," Zhang said. "I personally think everything will be better, with the market becoming more open. Freedom of media is something every journalist should strive for."
In an open talk in 2003, Zhang told his listeners that he became a father of a newborn baby. He also told them, "I see in him the future of myself and my country. I do not wish for him to grow up in a country that is still corrupted and polluted."
"Probe the Truth: News Probe."
On the screen, Cheng Kejie, Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, confessed to taking 41 million RMB worth of bribes, which was soon followed by a court decision imposing the death penalty--the highest-ranking official since the foundation of the PRC to receive a death sentence.
"Who gossiped? I will take care of him!" the head of a county raged in the face of a reporter who enquired about the misuse of public funds of an irrigation construction program.
"I shall appeal to justice till the end of my life," Wailed Li Yufeng. Her son, Fan Li, was wrongly sentenced to death by local authorities.
Every Monday at 10:35 a.m., the real-life investigative TV program News Probe is shown on CCTV 1. Since the first broadcast in 1996, the 45-minute news program has made history in the field of investigative reporting in China. Modeled after CBS's 60 Minutes, it was the first TV program in China to be labeled "investigative," focusing on reporting corruption, injustice and assorted other social problems.
"In our concept, truth stands for facts concealed by power, special interests, prejudices, and is sometimes limited by our social circle and collective conscious," declared Zhang Jie, executive producer of News Probe.
The TV program produced its catch phrase, "Probe the truth," in 2000, when the program reset its mission as independently investigating acts transgressing the public's interests. That is when the program took shape as an independent investigating entity. Before that, its journalists chiefly assisted investigations carried out by the Central Committee for Discipline Inspection and judicial institutions.
"The inspection of the Yuncheng irrigation construction program in 1999 was the first time we supervised local power as an independent media. Since then we have been ever stressing the independence of working journalists," said Zhang.
In 2003, News Probe underwent another transformation that consolidated its position in investigative reporting. "We have raised the motto of 'Doing real investigations,'" Zhang said. "Along with our regular social reporting, we directed our energy to muckraking. Our competition strategy is to make at least one influential investigative program every month with the journalist as the leader. To achieve our goal, we have reformed our evaluation system, encouraging journalists to oppose authorities and do original reporting."
Zhang argued that although the ideology and industrial level of China is different from western countries, it has the same goal of constructing an independent fourth 'power' to supervise society, to safeguard democracy and prosperity. He believes investigative reporting can serve the same role in China.
But tight censorship does not often concede that point, adding to the obstructions of independent investigations. A News Probe director said that the authorities canceled some of their investigation programs. "We are running into a catch-22 between marketing strategy and restraints coming from our state-ownership," Zhang said. "I personally think everything will be better, with the market becoming more open. Freedom of media is something every journalist should strive for."
In an open talk in 2003, Zhang told his listeners that he became a father of a newborn baby. He also told them, "I see in him the future of myself and my country. I do not wish for him to grow up in a country that is still corrupted and polluted."
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