China has about 208,000 registered journalists, including more than 1,100 reporters working for Internet news portals, press authorities said on Sunday, the country's 16th Journalists' Day.
Male reporters make up about 53 percent, and most of the country's journalists have university degrees, said a statement of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
Among them, more than 82,000 journalists are employed by newspapers and about 5,400 by periodicals. About 2,600 reporters work for news agencies and there are nearly 117,000 TV reporters and 1,100 Internet reporters, the statement said.
The number of reporters younger than 30 makes up more than 12 percent; those aged between 30 and 40 about 40 percent. Nearly 33 percent are between 40 and 50, with only 14 percent over 50.
On Friday, China granted press credentials to employees of news websites, giving interview and reporting rights to online media for the first time.
China previously banned most websites from reporting news, only allowing them to edit and publish news from traditional media. Despite this, there had been a trend for websites to follow up their own stories, interview sources and release news in their own name.
