On Wednesday, the journalism community in China began lining up behind the reporter, and the internet was the vehicle they used to publicize his plight. Several articles were published on blogs and elsewhere by supporters, and the reporter himself used his Sina.com account, China's version of Twitter, to defend himself and offer facts supporting the accuracy of his stories. Links to a satirical online wanted poster quickly became a trending topic on China's microblogs.

Then, as is often the case in the China "news cycle," China's powerful traditional, government-controlled media reacted to the online buzz with reporting of their own. The China Daily reported the story and the broadcaster CCTV ran a segment that revealed further questionable activities at the paper company.

By Thursday evening, Qiu Ziming was no longer a wanted man.

(Accounts of the story as reported in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are available for more details.)

The situation ended well, but is still a troubling reminder that a commitment to doing quality journalism can still be bad for your health in China. I've written about this before, and there are frequent, less publicized cases of journalist bashing. Literally. Some journalists from CCTV, for example, were recently beaten when they uncovered a story about local officials in Shanxi province who were building private villas on land meant for a public reservoir.

Aggressive reporting is certainly becoming more common in China, with publications vying for readers, journalism schools producing vast numbers of young idealistic reporters, and the central government becoming increasingly tolerant of the media's role in exposing corruption at the provincial and local level across China. The trend is making for a more readable, watchable and influential media community.

But it is clearly the internet, and its ability to marshal the powerful force of public opinion and outrage among the country's 350 million social media participants, that is giving me reason to be optimistic about the future of honest news reporting in China.

(Update, Aug. 2: A series of new reports of aggression directed at Chinese journalists surfaced over the weekend and brought more calls for reform and newsgathering protections. Details in the Global Times, and China Daily.)