Media

Leading Chinese journalist Hu Shuli expresses optimism about China media

27 Apr 2010

 

Hu Shuli meets the media after the luncheon

Veteran journalist Hu Shuli rejected widely held Western perceptions that the Chinese media are a monolithic state-dominated institution. Hu, founder and editor in chief of Caixin Media, a Beijing-based multimedia group, made the first public comments since her controversial departure from the groundbreaking Mainland China business magazine Caijing.

Delivering today the keynote address at the 2010 International Media Conference: Reporting New Realities in Asia and the Pacific and at a subsequent Q&A session, Hu presented a much more nuanced picture of her homeland's media sector.

Hu earned her nickname of "Most Feared Woman in China" as editor in chief of Caijing magazine. She led critical investigations into economic malfeasance in China, exposed a government cover-up of the SARS epidemic and reported shoddy building construction after the Sichuan earthquake.

"I don't think the media in China now is still an instrument of the state," she said. "The media environment is now very diversified. You can't take the situation as if there is just one voice. It was maybe the case thirty years ago, but not right now."

Director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, Professor Yuen-ying Chan said Hu became the "Most watched editor in the world" when news of her pending resignation from Caijing began to circulate late last year.
The resignation prompted a mass exodus of staff from the widely respected business publication. Hu said 140 newsroom staff departed with her, including the chief editor, deputy editors, desk heads, all senior reporters and numerous business staff.

Hu declined to elaborate on specific reasons why she resigned from the magazine, citing a difference of opinion in the future development of the publication.

"Some Western media reports said our departure was a major setback for independent journalism in China, but it's not true," she said. "We are back. We chose to leave because we wanted to continue what we were doing, not because we wanted to give up."

During her luncheon speech, Hu discussed the history of Caijing, her new projects, and the challenges facing Chinese media in the global transition away from traditional media market models.

She founded her new company, Caixin Media, in December 2009 and began publishing Century Weekly in January 2010. She is now involved in other media ventures: caing.com, the monthly China Reform, and she is developing multimedia products for the iPhone and the Kindle platforms. She also joined the faculty of Guangdong-based Sun Yat-sen University as Dean of the School of Communication and Design.

"Caijing's success in the past decade parallels with the development of professional journalism in China," she said, and factors that supported the changing media landscape included a "rapid opening up" and the Internet. Now, she said social networking and new technology had transformed traditional media to such an extent that "it may be necessary to redefine professional journalists."

However, Hu emphasised that a foundation of good journalistic ethics remains equally important in today's media industry. This ethical concern prompted Hu to establish an independent advisory board for her new publications.

The International Media Conference is co-hosted by The University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre and the East-West Center's Asia Pacific Center for Journalists. This conference provides a unique opportunity to see more than 200 journalists and major movers and shakers from all over Asia, America and the Pacific come together to look at the shifting power dynamics in the world's most dynamic region - the Asia Pacific, and how China's growth on the world stage is changing economic landscapes.

The theme for tomorrow's media conference will be "All Eyes on China" with three sessions from 9am to 1:45pm: "Cross Straits Relations", "Chinese Editors Round Table-Future of Media in China" and "Luncheon Editors Roundtable".

Simultaneous translation in English/Putonghua will be provided for morning plenary session.

Conference Website: visit http://www.ewc50.org/mediaconference2010/  to view all conference details; updated conference agenda, conference logistics and other special conference content with up-to-date news, session summaries, video and more.

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