For journalists it's 100 times worse. You have to hire a government "minder" to make sure your reporting is harmonious with the party line. Or you take the risk of doing it incognito, which can get you detained and interrogated (happened to me in 2008).
Yeah, same phenomenon! I remember hiding small mini-DV video tapes in a sealed bag in the upper chamber of the toilet and putting a strip of tape across the door to see when the government was searching my apartment.
