Michael Anti (journalist)


Jing Zhao, also known by his pen name Michael Anti, is a Chinese journalist and political blogger, recognized for his posts about freedom of the press in China. He has been described in mid-2000s as "at one time perhaps the most famous political blogger on China's Internet.".

Biography

Born in Nanjing, He graduated from Nanjing Normal University in 1995 where he majored in Industrial Electrical Automation. From 1998 he started posting essays on the Internet, and became a journalist shortly afterward. lost his job at a Chinese newspaper in 2003 when the entire paper was shut down in retaliation of its support for political reform. In December 2004 under a pen name Michael Anti he started a blog that got blocked in China in August next year. This prompted him to switch to MSN Spaces, a Microsoft-hosted blog.
Michael Anti became notable when at the Chinese government request Microsoft deleted his blog at the end of 2005. His blog was removed after he posted about the firing of three editors at Xinjingbao and called upon subscribers to the paper to cancel their subscriptions. His case made headlines around the world and contributed to ongoing debates about the role of Western companies in China's censorship system. Michael Anti himself, while angry at the deletion of his blog, argued that the Chinese are better off with Windows Live Spaces than without it.
He has been a commentator for the Huaxia Times, correspondent of the 21st Century World Herald, war reporter in Baghdad in 2003, researcher at The Washington Post Beijing Bureau and at The New York Times Beijing bureau, columnist for the Southern Metropolis Daily, and publisher of the Far and Wide Journal.
He worked as project director in Cheung Kong School of Journalism and Communication of Shantou University from September 2008 to March 2009.

Awards

He is a recipient of a Wolfson press fellowship at Cambridge University and Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.
Michael Anti was awarded the “M100 Sanssouci Media Award 2011” in Potsdam, Germany on 8 September 2011.