New | Four Chinese journalists, activists named world ‘information heroes’ by watchdog group

In a telling reflection of China’s media landscape, none of them are currently working at a media organisation.

The only one of the four who is not facing persecution had been fired from his job and faced alleged death threats and kidnapping attempts.

Li Jianjun has for years pointed to corruption at the top of the state-owned China Resources conglomerate. The former investigative reporter at the Shanxi Evening Post was vindicated earlier this month, when the chairman, Song Lin, and two leading executives were placed under investigation by Communist Party discipline inspectors in a graft probe.

The other Chinese journalist included in the list is Liu Hu, a reporter for the Guangzhou-based Modern Express. He is currently in pre-trial detention in Beijing awaiting a trial on charges of defamation. The muckraking reporter had shared corruption allegations against senior government officials on his Weibo microblog.