Corruption

Introduction The People's Republic of China has suffered from widespread corruption for many years. For 2012, China was ranked 80th out of 178 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking below the most of developed countries. This severe problem has become the target of public criticism. The 2002 Mainland China national survey, a part of the Asian Barometer Survey I, indicated that almost half of people view corruption in government as a common and serious problem.
Then what are the determinants of corruption? According to (Jain, 2001), in general, there are three types of determinants. The first one is related to internal mechanisms and encouragements within the government in managing corruption. The second type concentrates on the external mechanism in inspecting corruption, such as the specific and independent organization for anti-corruption. The last branch suggested that the corruption could be explained by some indirectly factors, such as culture. Therefore, according to this categorization, a free media should be an external mechanism for controlling corruption. That is, the freedom of Mass media is normally viewed as significant human rights and powerful controls against corruption of government. “An independent press is probably one of the most effective institutions to uncover trespassing by government officials. The reason is that any independent journalist has a strong incentive to investigate and uncover stories on wrongdoing. Countries with a free press should, therefore, ceteris paribus, have less corruption than countries where the press is controlled and censored.”
Unfortunately, the role of Media in China is really specific. The relationship between the Chinese news media and the Chinese government is diametrically opposite of that between the media and the government in democratic societies, such as America. “Against a backdrop of rapid socio-economic change and modernization, China continues to be an