Beijing Censorship Leads To Exodus Of Sixth Tone Media Staffers

For years, Shanghai-based state media outlet Sixth Tone led analysts to ask, “How are they getting away with this?”

Sixth Tone’s decline is a reminder that even when Chinese journalists fight to carve out a space for good reporting, it is usually short-lived. I Photo: D. Thompson Wikimedia Commons

The outlet spun out of a Chinese-language newspaper called The Paper.

It offered remarkably good and honest reporting on tough topics, despite being founded in 2016, well into the Xi-era crackdown on Chinese media, James Palmer wrote for China Brief.

It pulled it off thanks to both liberal leadership and publishing in English—therefore drawing less attention. But Sixth Tone’s quality has gone downhill in the past year, with stories censored and many staff departing.

The Wire China has an account of how the site rose and fell.

A 2022 Year in Review column caught the attention of online nationalists, who began a campaign against the outlet that prompted an investigation. Sixth Tone’s decline is a reminder that even when Chinese journalists fight to carve out a space for good reporting, it is usually short-lived.

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