Wang Wenzhi, chief journalist of the Economic Information Daily affiliated to the Xinhua News Agency, made an explosive real-name whistle-blowing report on his Sina Weibo account. Wang accused Song Lin, chairman of China Resources Holdings, and other senior managers of losing the State-owned firm billions of yuan in an acquisition. He criticized them for neglecting their duty and of possibly being involved in huge amounts of graft.

Wang's report was deleted on Wednesday afternoon. No official Weibo accounts of the Xinhua News Agency re-posted Wang's report and all media reports concerning Wang's whistle-blowing were removed from the Internet. China Resources Holdings issued a statement later, denying all the allegations.

This is another case of whistle-blowing by investigative journalists after Luo Changping, deputy managing editor of Caijing Magazine, toppled former deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission Liu Tienan. Wang made use of his role as journalist to stir up public attention and caused a sensation on the Internet, which could lead to an investigation into senior executives of China Resources Holdings.

We need to consider whether real-name reporting by journalists through Weibo should become the norm. From the perspective of social construction, it's indeed double-edged. On the one hand, encouraging journalists to report corruption cases could motivate activity in anti-corruption campaigns and the public attention attracted will facilitate further investigation through putting cases under public supervision.

On the other hand, the combination of a journalist identity and Weibo will generate discourse, which might not be rationally and accurately used by the journalist himself. The journalist takes advantage of the influence of the media he works for. Such use of influence needs to be cautious. Take the Associated Press, which forbids all journalists from publishing anything unauthorized by AP on their personal blogs in new regulations.

We think it's better to publicize journalistic activities of reporters through the media they work for and take Weibo as a complementary platform. Media need to support their reporters in conducting investigative journalism. Cases where journalists are active on social media sites while the media outlets they work for remain silent should be avoided.  

The current situation is that some media are too cautious to tackle their responsibilities, while their reporters want to do their jobs and uncover scandals. This results in some journalists resorting to the Internet.

Luo Changping set a good example. But if journalists like Luo spring up in all media, the order of Chinese media will be changed and people's understanding and the power of social networking sites will also be altered.

Combining anti-corruption efforts with the Internet is a new thing in China, which has many uncertainties. Those who have the power to disclose information should assume the responsibility of eliminating and reducing uncertainties.