Brave editors

It's been a while since I posted something picked up from Rebecca MacKinnon's RConversation blog. That's no reflection on its continuing excellence in addressing some of the tricky issues of media, censorship and modern China.

This piece on the New America Media site came to me that way and is a fascinating interview with Hu Shuli, the apparently fearless Editor of China's Caijing magazine.

Highlights:

"If a story's important enough, we'll find a way to talk about it".

"Under Hu's stewardship, Caijing has successfully navigated the space between censorship and complete press freedom in China. The magazine, which has lead the way in the transformation of the media's role in China by challenging the boundaries of business journalism, is considered a must-read for politicians, investors and financial market leaders."

Quite right!

"In a transitional country like China, all business issues are related to political issues, and in the end, every important political and social issue has relevance to business"

"Caijing showed people how far you could push the envelope in terms of permissible reporting by wrapping it in the 'financial reporting' cloak"

And finally:

"A lot of times we don't think what we are doing is risky, but at the same time, some risks are worth taking," Hu says.

Well, hooray for Hu.