In an auto-congratulatory Xinhua piece on media freedom this morning, Imagethief was pleased to see the following among the proof points offered:

Starting this month, the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, which straddles the Yangtze River, instituted regular monthly press conferences for domestic and foreign media. Local officials pledged not to restrict media reporting by "influencing, interfering or handing out pre-meditated press releases."

Whew! That's one work-bullet dodged.

I finds myself wondering if un-premeditated press releases --or press releases of passion as I prefer to think of them-- will still be offered by the Chongqing government.

Frankly, upon further reflection I feel the Chongqing city government may be on to something. Surely most journalists would agree that your average press release is suffers from rather too much premeditation. Could the Chongqing city government, of all entities, be charting the way to more progressive public relations?

No, I don't really think so either.