China has a vibrant media which has helped expose graft by high-ranking public officials resulting in their arrest and prosecution, Zimbabwean journalists on a recent tour of the Asian country learnt.
Report by Veneranda Langa recently in Beijing, China While corruption by high-ranking government officials has been the bane of many countries, including Zimbabwe, the Chinese media has over 2 000 newspapers, almost 10 000 magazines, 3 000 television stations and over three million registered websites that have kept vice under the spotlight by exposing the culprits.
A Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher Min Da Hong said nobody could escape media scrutiny.
“Wherever you are, one is always put under supervision of Internet and nobody can escape scrutiny,” Da Hong said.
“For example, government officials are constantly under supervision to the extent that officials are often exposed through the Internet and other media.”
Da Hong said one government official was currently serving a nine-year prison sentence after the media picked that he had a penchant for wearing expensive wrist watches.
The media published pictures showing his expensive wrist watches, leading to his arrest after it was discovered that his lavish lifestyle did not match his earnings.
