The year began with journalists from China's Southern Weekly striking because their paper had spiked a leader calling for constitutional protections for individual liberty at the behest of the local propaganda chief — and replaced it with an article praising the Communist Party.
It ends with the New York Times and Bloomberg, having dared to publish details of the stunning family wealth of the country's outgoing prime minister and incoming president, fearing that the one-year ban on new journalist visas to both organizations may be continued.
This is life in a one-party state, a running battle between a party apparatus fearful for its legitimacy and journalists whose craft necessarily involves disclosing information that the party would rather nobody knew. The practice of journalism in China, a country where 30 practitioners are in prison, has never been easy. During 2013, it has become a great deal harder.