Great project by the US-China Institute at USC.

The documentary — Assignment: China, “Opening Up” — is the story of the Western journalists who covered China in the early years of its opening to the West and the attempts by the Chinese government to control the message those journalists sent out.

The 1-hour documentary (available online) is well worth the time for history buffs, journalism geeks and anyone interested in the story of  how free and independent journalism clashes with a government obsessed with media control.

The documentary is written and reported by one of those early pioneers — Mike Chinoy. You might recall his reporting from Tiananmen Square in May-June 1989.

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World.