The South China Morning Post published a story about Chinese journalists being forced to undergo 'training' and take an examination to qualify for a 'reporter's license':

Beijing has launched a nationwide ideological indoctrination campaign for journalists to tighten its grip on the media. Most of the tens of thousands of journalists not working for official media organisations have been asked to attend week-long courses in order to qualify for a reporter's licence, sources revealed...

...In Beijing, many journalists have been required to pay more than 1,400 yuan for the week-long course. The two-part course includes theoretical study of Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and Jiang Zemin's Theory of the Three Represents and lectures on ethics and regulations.

However, a few calls to newsrooms around Beijing reveal that not only are many journalists completely unaware of these requirements, but many of those those that know about them do not plan to attend.

LINKS:
The South China Morning Post article seems to have disappeared from their website, but there is more about the article on blogs Simon World and Imagethief.

Thanks Simon and Paul for emailing about this