China's young reporters give up on journalism: 'You can't write what you want'

When a 7.9-magnitude earthquake ripped through Sichuan province in May 2008, Lin Tianhong, a 29-year-old reporter at China Youth Daily, was one of the first to volunteer to head into the disaster zone. “Everyone wanted to go,” he recalled. “Otherwise, why be a journalist?” Hours later the Beijing-based reporter was flying towards Sichuan’s shattered countryside for what would be one of the most horrifying and defining moments of his short career in journalism. Read more