China’s Communist Party (CCP) have been working hard to both control and stifle the spread of information via media and social media, during the Covid-19 crisis. So much so that two citizen journalists covering the outbreak from Wuhan, Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin, have been missing now for over a month.
According to The NYTimes, however, China’s journalists are fighting back. Spurred on by the public, who are deeply angered as a result of the government’s focus on silencing truthful information about the outbreak, journalists have resorted to innovative measures to publish exposés on government cover-ups and the wide-spread failures of the healthcare system.
The public response seems to indicate an increased distrust in the CCP, which reinforces the essential trust-building function a free press has in any society.
Read the full piece here.
Photo credit: Andy Wong, Associated Press