Anti-corruption whistle-blowers are increasingly turning to “new media” to expose official wrongdoings, a new report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has found.
More than 156 corruption cases were reported through the web and mobile apps between 2010 and 2012, according to the state think-tank’s latest Annual Report on the Development of New Media in China, published on Tuesday.
The report said the number was double that of newspapers, television and other traditional media - with most cases pertaining to officials’ discipline and regulation violations, power abuses and ethical problems.
Microblogs such as Sina Weibo as well as mobile “micro-messaging” apps such as WeChat (Weixin), are leading to the rise of a cheap and effective way for sources to expose suspected cases of graft without having their identities compromised, the report added.
“One of the reasons this is happening is because the government is letting it happen. President Xi Jinping has made it clear that rooting out government corruption is a top priority, and he realises new media are valuable tools to achieving this end,” says Doug Young, a journalism professor at Shanghai's Fudan University and author of The Party Line: How the Media Dictates Public Opinion in Modern China.