China's official journalists body today asked scribes working for the state-run media to stick to socialist values in their work amid crackdown on the media to prevent them from revealing sensitive state and commercial information.
The All-China Journalists Association, a state-run media body of the official media personnel issued a proposal today calling on the country's journalists to practice socialist values in their work.
"As our duty is to spread information, we should better promote the significance of the socialist core values and report latest progress in this regard," the ACJA said.
It also called on journalists to stand up to negative voices, an apparent reference to conservative elements of the ruling Communist Party of China, (CPC) who opposed President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption and austerity as well as his ideological stand to restore socialist values with Chinese characteristics, a broad reference to carry on economic reforms under the one party system.
Journalists should adhere to the principle of press authenticity and oppose false news, ACJA said.
The new guidelines came as all the official media journalists have been asked to undergo ideological training and tests besides clamp down by State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television to toughen curbs on media personnel disclosing state and commercial secrets.
For the past few years Chinese official media which has monopoly status is undergoing a makeover with millions of dollars of investments to neutralise effects of the increasingly social media, specially the microblog media.
Recently Xi said China will build several new-type media groups that are strong, influential and credible.
He called on the nation to integrate traditional and new media to diversify its communication system.
Traditional media and new media must complement each other and their integration should cover content, channels, platforms, operations and management, Xi said.
Integration should be supported by technology and follow the rules of news communication and laws governing the development of new media.
