Mag takes sexy quake pics

2008-05-21 14:40

Beijing - A Chinese magazine has been shut down for printing pictures of scantily clad women posing in rubble for a special report on the country's devastating earthquake, officials said on Wednesday.

The New Travel Weekly, a small lifestyle magazine, ran photos of sultry models in their underwear amid the debris in an issue that hit the stands on Monday - the first of three days of national mourning.

The press and publication department of the southwestern city of Chongqing, where the magazine was based, said it decided to close the magazine down for "rectification".

The department said the magazine "seriously violated propaganda discipline and went against social morals" and the report constituted an "extremely evil social influence."

"If the outcome of the rectification is satisfactory, it is possible to reopen the magazine," an employee of the press and publication department with the family name Cai told AFP.

"After all, only part of the staff made the decision to print that shoot. It wouldn't be fair to just close it for good."

Editors sacked

The company that manages The New Travel Weekly said it had sacked the magazine's managing editor, editor and deputy editor, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China has seen an outpouring of emotion after the earthquake, which killed more than 41 000 people. The government declared official mourning for the first time since communist China's founder Mao Zedong died in 1976.

As part of the official grief, it temporarily pulled entertainment networks off television and closed down cinemas, karaoke bars and other leisure venues.

- AFP