"Big Tiger" is gone. "Master Kang" has disappeared.

The various euphemisms Chinese media have used to describe a once powerful domestic security czar are no longer necessary, after the Communist Party announced on Tuesday that it had launched a corruption investigation into Zhou Yongkang.

Confirmation of what was long known has proved a kind of catharsis for journalists, who have had to strike a balance between publishing thinly veiled reports about the sensational case and sticking to China's censorship rules.