In a country that consistently ranks among the top three “jailers of journalists” (according to the Committee to Protect Journalists), investigative journalists not only continue to do their work but are also recognised for the same. The recognition comes not from international organisations, which are quick to reward dissenters in communist countries, but from their own peers living under the same regime.
The names of the winners of the seventh edition of the Journalists Home News Prize for 2025 were announced recently. It was perhaps fitting that the announcement was made from the social media account of a journalist who was himself detained in February along with a younger colleague and released on bail after 13 days. Both were charged with false accusations and illegal business operations for posting a report on China’s equivalent of WhatsApp about corruption by a party secretary in Sichuan. The arrests led to an uproar: 21 articles were written about them which were all taken down by the censors.
This wasn’t the 50-year-old journalist’s first such experience. In 2013, he had been jailed for defamation for a year before being released on bail for his exposé on corruption by a high-ranking official that was published in the newspaper for which he was working then.
That experience led him to set up the awards in 2019, named after ‘Journalists Home’, a Bulletin-Board Sites forum for media persons in the 2000s, when investigative reporting flourished in mainstream papers. Just how wide-ranging the investigative journalism still existing in China is can be seen from the increase in the number of awards: from just four in 2019 to nine today. Surprise, surprise! Half of them were published in State-run outlets.
The themes of the winning pieces ranged from revisiting, on its fifth anniversary, the fearful beginning of the Covid epidemic in Wuhan to the cruel practice of hospitals refusing to admit terminally ill children aged under five so as not to spoil China’s infant mortality rate. Some reports were selected for their comprehensive coverage or follow-ups of sensational incidents, for instance, the rape of a 24-year-old by her fiancé. The report carried the versions of both partners, and placed the rape in the context of the traditional, widely prevalent practice of ‘bride price’.
Similarly, the beating to death of a young, seemingly perfect, wife by her husband and his parents was explored from all angles, and included conversations with her relatives and close friends.
Two of the winners had pushed the authorities into action. One was an in-depth report on a railway track that cut through a village which claimed 17 lives in the last four decades. The report quoted victims’ families, including one which first lost the grandfather, and, 25 years later, his two-year-old grandson, to the unguarded railway line. Circulated online, picked up by the radio, and commented upon by other publications, the report forced the railways to finally fence off the track.
Another winning entry, a 24-minute video report for Shanghai TV, revisited a January 2024 school fire in which 13 children had perished. Despite assurances of a quick investigation, nothing had emerged till December 2025. The video interviewed the bereaved parents as well as criminal law experts. Again, picked up by various media outlets, it became the top trending topic on social media. Within nine days of the report, the official news agency, Xinhua, published the investigation findings. More importantly, the court changed the closed-door hearings of the case into an open trial. The three accused pleaded guilty.
Incidentally, China does have official awards for journalism. Last year’s winning entries were on advances made by the country in environment, medicine, defence,
and mining.