media - Media report freely on cockling drama

The Times online brings an interesting story about the relative freedom domestic media took in reporting about the recent death of 19 illegal immigrants from Fujian province. Compared to other disasters involving larger number of deaths, both inside and outside China, domestic and foreign reports got a free hand in reporting about th
"When 58 Chinese died in Dover four years ago, hardly anything appeared in the local media and foreign journalists who tried to interview the victims' families were detained by police.e local impact of the drowning of the 19 inhabitants of a few villages in Eastern China," observes The Times. "Even Xinhua, the news agency that functions as Beijing's main propaganda organ, has published material that would have been deemed damaging to the national image in the past."