About 2.50 lakh journalists from China's official media will undergo a three month "on-the-job training" in Marxism, socialism and ethics, the country's media regulator announced today.
All reporting staff with official newspapers, news agencies, TV stations and other press organisations in the country will be required to undergo training, which will last for three months until the end of 2013, the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said.
A unified training programme has been created by the administration, along with training materials and teaching videos, which will be provided for nationwide media organisations for free, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Training will focus on six subjects, including theories on socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Marxist view on journalism, journalistic ethics, laws and regulations, norms in news gathering and editing and content on preventing false information, said the administration.
Media staff are also required to take an exam scheduled in early 2014 to obtain press cards, the report said.
China's official media which functioned under state controls came under pressure in recent years as the social media, specially Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, became immensely popular with about 300 million accounts.