RETURNING to Beijing after a few days in Ireland, where the press has been dominated by a prominent libel case, and looking through back issues of the China Daily, I was struck by how uncritical is the Chinese media compared to our own.
Robust assessments of the performance of public figures do not appear in Beijing newspapers. Reporting is tightly controlled and subject to the interests of the Communist Party.
And yet, despite the close supervision of journalists by party organs, all is apparently not well in the media world of modern China.
"Laxity and wildness" abound among the nation's journalists, according to a top party official, Mr Li Tieying, in a recent speech. Reporters are guilty of frequent acts of "money worship, hedonism and individualism", according to the state controlled Xinhua news agency. Xinhua revealed that "the unhealthy trend of demanding money in return for news reporting is spreading despite repeated bans".
With newspapers here only a fraction of the size of western dailies, it is hardly surprising that space is at such a premium that people will offer to pay to get their name or project into print.
This is a variation of the practice of some officials in other countries to demand money for interviews (as happens in Moscow) and attempts by miscreants (experienced by many a provincial newspaper editor in Ireland) to offer bribes to keep their names out of the newspapers.
Money for mention has become so serious a problem in market economy China that the Communist Party propaganda department and All China Journalists Association have issued special regulations to bring the Chinese hacks back into line. The main provisions are:
1, New units shall not accept any form of payment for interviews or editing and publishing news stories
2, Journalists should not borrow or use on a trial basis in any way motor vehicles, housing household electric appliances or telecommunications facilities offered by the interviews;
3, Journalists are asked neither to request nor accept bonuses of any form when they attend news conferences and celebrations;
4, Reporters or editors on the payroll of certain news units should not hold concurrent posts in other enterprises;
5, Individual journalists should not form groups or go on reporting tours without authorisation;
6, Journalists on reporting tours should not ask for special living allowances, and going in for ostentation and extravagance and squandering public funds are strictly prohibited;
7, Journalists are not to use threats such as "exposing someone or something" or "inside reporting" for personal gain.
The punishment for the erring journalist in China is made to fit the crime. They must be exposed in print, particularly those guilty of "money worship, hedonism (devotion to pleasure and self gratification as a way of life) and individualism". (Some cynical politicians might list these as the defining qualities of political columnists the world over).
Whereas in Ireland the libel laws are there to punish writers who offend, in China journalists, or the "engineers of the human soul" as the All China Journalists' Federation calls them, should be "subject to supervision by the general public".
"Anyone who discovers that journalists have engaged in such unhealthy acts as violation of professional ethics may call or write to their work units, or telephone a hotline (Beijing 66020001)," says the federation.
If the journalist's alleged wrongdoings are confirmed, typical cases should be selected and publicised "so that reporters may get education from these cases".
As for "laxity and wildness" among newspaper writers, this must be tackled resolutely, said Mr Li, along with illegal publications, pornography and copyright violations (though to the untrained eye there seems to be precious little "wildness" in the tame Chinese media).
Media types "should follow up victories with hot pursuit", Mr Li told a newspaper conference. They should "stop fishing for fame, eliminate despotic practices, weed out all evils, and never try to seek profit at the expense of people's physical and mental soundness".
I must be missing something in the China Daily.