[n-gate]

One thing I'd guaranteed- it's not china. China is very well adept at paying newspapers and tv firms journalists as my friends from south asia tell me and that is a much cleaner approach.

[wybiral]

We don't know that it's a nation state at all. Or that they were specifically targeting newspapers. So it seems a bit early to speculate on who it isn't.

[danso]

How would that be a cleaner approach, when it requires a conspiracy? Which countries did your friends operate from?

[daodedickinson]

Conspiracies are cleaner, that's why rulers use them, all over the planet and beyond.