Li Dongdong, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said some reporters were giving Chinese journalism a bad name because they hadn’t been properly trained. She didn’t give any specific examples.
Similar comments by Li were posted on the website of the official Xinhua News Agency.
Li told Xinhua the new qualification system would ensure all journalists learn socialist and Marxist theories of journalism and media ethics.
She said, "Comrades who are going to be working on journalism’s front lines must learn theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics and be taught Marx’s view on news, plus media ethics and Communist Party discipline on news and propaganda."
Guardian reported a senior editor with the Beijing-based Economic Observer said this week he had been punished for co-authoring an editorial that urged the government to scrap an unpopular household registration system, saying it discriminated against the poor.