China turns towards communist education to counter Internet

China has hereby directed around 3 lakh journalists working in the state-run media to attend Marxism classes. This move is aimed at containing the influence of rapidly expanding internet media on its tightly controlled press.

Reportedly, from June 2013 till January 2014, over three lakh people working in the media industry throughout the state will receive training on journalism with Marxist values.

An official said "The modern media field in China is more 'complicated' than earlier. The media staffs need to take more responsibility. As the Internet has become a battleground for public opinion and that a lack of responsible behaviour has led to many people breaking the rules."

The managers of CPC media say Internet has changed the landscape of the media in China, as the country now has over 300 million people hooked to microblogs, which is the highest in the world.

Moreover, the officials of CPC say young people make up the majority of media workers, and their 'ideological quality' has changed.

According to the source, most of the journalists with China Central Television (CCTV) who attended the classes, said they believe the courses have been useful, but the classes were more about ideology than professionalism.

They attended the three-hour training session in late June, which lasted three hours in the morning, as part of a group of 400 reporters and editors.

While microblog media are spreading fast, the media in China are controlled by the state as almost all newspapers and television channels are part of the official media. The classes are led by a professor, who is an expert on Marxism, though questioned how relevant the material is for modern journalism, the source said.