In the “A Little History” post below I* quoted a comment by Champson Liu of the People’s Daily, noting in passing that he had used the word ‘mouthpiece’ to describe his newspaper, a term that is derogatory in English. Here’s what he had to say about that term and also about being a journalist in China today :
As to the “mouthpiece” term (or the not-so-derogative 喉舌 in Chinese), it is a somewhat sad but accepted reality of all official news media staffs in China at the current stage of journalistic development. However, like most of my colleagues, I firmly believe the future environment for journalism in China will only head for the better, as is evident if you compare today’s People’s Daily with 15 years ago. Here, we are just being more realistic and patient than our Western counterparts :-)