Chinese journalists confront censors
2013-01-04 22:05
Beijing - In a rare move, some Chinese journalists are
openly confronting a top censor after a southern newspaper known for its edgy
reporting was forced to change a New Year editorial calling for political
reform into a tribute praising the Communist Party.
Sixty journalists from the Southern Weekly in Guangdong
province issued a complaint on Thursday over the last-minute changes that they
said were made without the consent of the editorial department.
Another group of 35 former reporters from the newspaper
went a step further on Friday, calling for the resignation of the provincial party
propaganda chief Tuo Zhen - whom they held personally responsible for the
changes - while arguing that strong and credible news media are crucial for the
country and even necessary for the ruling party.
"If the media should lose credibility and influence,
then how can the ruling party make its voice heard or convince its
people?" their letter said.
The party-run Global Times newspaper hit back with a
defense of the government line, publishing an editorial saying the media cannot
exist "romantically" outside the country's political reality. The
spat has become one of the hottest topics on China's popular microblog site
Sina Weibo.
Also apparently coming under pressure from Chinese
censors was the Beijing-based pro-reform journal Yanhuang Chunqiu, whose
website was no longer accessible on the mainland on Friday.
The journal regularly challenges censorship and recently
published a New Year's message advocating political reform.
Yang Jisheng, the journal's deputy director, said a
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Department instructed the
journal to shut down the website on Monday without providing a reason. By
Friday, journal staff found the site blocked in China.
Censoring
China's media in recent years have become increasingly
freewheeling in some kinds of coverage, including lurid reports on celebrities
and sports figures.
Still, censorship of political issues remains tight -
although government officials typically claim there is no censorship at all -
and the restrictions have drawn increasingly vocal criticism from journalists
and members of the public.
Touching off the latest tussle was a New Year's message
to be published in the Southern Weekly on Thursday.
The newspaper's annual feature has become a popular and
influential tradition because of its boldness.
For 2013, the theme was to be constitutional rule. The
original version called for democracy, freedom and adherence to the
constitution - a reference to promises made in the 1982-era constitution to
allow such reforms as independent courts and the rule of law. The country's
communist leaders have been reluctant to fulfil those pledges for fear of
eroding their monopoly on power.
"The Chinese dream is the dream of constitutional
rule," the original version read, according to photographs of the text
widely disseminated online and confirmed in a telephone interview with its
author, one of the newspaper's editors, Dai Zhiyong.
That later was watered down as part of the newspaper's
usual vetting process with upper-level management - a process that is part
self-censorship, part consultation with Communist Party censors.
It was watered down further, Southern Weekly journalists
say, without the knowledge of front-line reporters and editors on the evening
before it hit the newsstand.
The version that eventually was published said the
Chinese dream of renaissance was closer than ever before, thanks to China's
Communist leaders.
The journalists took issue not only with the changes to
that message but with revisions of the headline and design.
In particular, they said an additional message apparently
added by censors to the newspaper's front page contained a major error about
Chinese folk history.
A reference to a flood control campaign supposedly
introduced 4 000 years ago was erroneously dated to about 2 000 years ago.
Call for resignation
The phone for Guangdong's provincial information office
rang unanswered on Friday.
In their call for Tuo's resignation, former Southern
Weekly journalists said the man has brought the darkest time in the past three
decades to the media industry in Guangdong, one of the boldest in China.
Zhao Chu, an independent media observer in Shanghai, said
the intervention was not isolated but had the sanction of Beijing. The party
remains keen on maintaining its rule, and the Southern Weekly - a symbol of
China's media ideals - became a target as it tries to control public
discussions, Zhao said.
Zhan Jiang, a journalism professor at Beijing Foreign
Studies University, wrote on his microblog that the apparent party intervention
runs contrary to China's claim that there is no news censorship.
"This clearly tells the international community that
China has broken its word," he said.
When Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying
was asked about the issue during a routine briefing on Friday, she said she was
not aware of the specifics of the situation, but added: "I want to point
out that there's no so-called news censorship in China and the Chinese
government protects the freedom of news report and has given full play to news
media in terms of supervision."
David Bandurski, a researcher with the Hong Kong-based
China Media Project, said the Chinese government normally controls the media by
guidance, and that censorship is not conducted in the form of red ink but
through consultation among propaganda officials and editors. What's unusual in
the Southern Weekly case is that propaganda officials apparently bypassed the
editors, he said.
"That kind of interference, without the knowledge of
the editors, is very serious and worrisome," Bandurski said.
It is still too early to tell if the incident is isolated
or indicative, and the open letter by former Southern Weekly journalists is
challenging Beijing to show its stand, Bandurski said.
"It says, put your cards on the table, tell us where
you really are about openness," Bandurski said.
- AP
