In this 2004 essay, Lu Ye explores what has become a recurring question in the age of commercialized media in China: who should watch the media? The question is given urgency by such phenomena as fake news, paid-for news and news extortion, but also complicated by China’s ongoing legacy of censorship. Lu Ye seeks the answer to her question in Western notions of journalistic professionalism:
“The press councils of the West are specific manifestations of Western principles of journalistic professionalism. The professional principles that serve as credos for the Western news profession are the ideological basic for self-discipline by Western media. They are a mode of social control based on professional knowledge, with the goal of serving the whole of society, and exercising self-discipline via a professional peer community. ” [LINK HERE]