Mediaboss Marketing

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The air is abuzz with self-censorship accusations against Hong Kong's media flying like a swarm of locusts - and a diktat from one leading editor seems to have stirred something of a hornets' nest.

South China Morning Post editor-in- chief Wang Xiangwei has banned use of the word "locusts" to describe mainland visitors, except if absolutely necessary as part of a direct quote.

This is despite the fact that the snappy word has been regularly used by the SCMP's headline writers for the past couple of years, with not a hint of criticism leveled against them for doing so - until now.

Wang's e-mail to staff was quickly leaked to the outside world and pounced on by both print and online media.

It also coincided with an appeal by the Hong Kong Journalists Association for media professionals to report any cases of self-censorship.

It's an ugly world out there, and adhering to political correctness doesn't change the facts. No doubt locust is insulting - but an outright ban on the word is totally unnecessary.

Just tell it the way it is - self- censorship, or not.

More here:
Paper locusts are silenced ...