The Journalist as Crusader

Abstract

In June 2002, the staff of the weekly supplement of the China Economic Times, one of China's leading business dailies, held their Friday editorial meeting. Wang Nan, the section's editor, passed a pile of research materials over to veteran investigative reporter, Wang Keqin. They included a document from the newspaper's parent organization, the Development Research Center (DRC), a policy think-tank of China's State Council. Guo Lihong, who managed the center's economics division, had sent over the DRC document, “An investigation and petition on the plight of Beijing taxi drivers.” It included statements from a few local taxi drivers. Although it was not at all uncommon for the China Economic Times's reporters to cite officials from the DRC in their stories, the DRC did not generally send reports directly to the newsroom. Wang Nan suggested that Wang Keqin should explore a possible news feature about the economic difficulties that taxi drivers faced in Beijing.