MCLC: tentative deal on censorship dispute

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: tentative deal on censorship dispute
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See also the accompanying video.

Kirk

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Source: NYT (1/8/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/world/asia/faceoff-in-chinese-city-over-c
ensorship-of-newspaper.html

Tentative Deal Reported in Chinese Censorship Dispute
By EDWARD WONG and CHRIS BUCKLEY

GUANGZHOU, China — A tentative agreement to defuse a newsroom strike by
Chinese journalists over censorship controls in this southeastern
provincial capital had been reached by early Wednesday, and some reporters
working for Southern Weekend, the newspaper at the heart of the dispute,
were told that the paper would publish as usual on Thursday, one
journalist in the newsroom said.

“The paper is coming out tomorrow, and the propaganda department is going
to hold a meeting with staff about this tomorrow,” said the journalist,
who spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity. Several other reporters
said that details of the agreement remained murky Wednesday morning, and
that the deal could fall apart.

Protests over censorship at Southern Weekend, one of China’s most liberal
newspapers, had descended into ideological confrontation on Tuesday,
pitting advocates of free speech against supporters of Communist Party
control, who wielded red flags and portraits of Mao Zedong.

The face-off outside the headquarters of the company that publishes
Southern Weekend came after disgruntled editors and reporters at the paper
last week deplored what they called crude meddling by the top propaganda
official in Guangdong Province, which has long had a reputation as a
bastion of a relatively free press.

With a number of celebrities and business leaders rallying online to the
liberal cause, senior propaganda officials in Beijing began this week to
roll out a national strategy of demonizing the rebel journalists and their
supporters. The Central Propaganda Department issued a directive
<https://thecaonima.net/2013/01/ministry-of-truth-urgent-notice-on-southern
-weekly/> to news organizations saying the defiant outburst at Southern
Weekend, also known as Southern Weekly, had involved “hostile foreign
forces.”

The order, translated by China Digital Times, a research group at the
University of California, Berkeley, that studies Chinese news media, said
that Chinese journalists must drop their support of Southern Weekend and
insisted that “party control of the media is an unwavering basic
principle.”

An editor at a party news organization said the term “hostile forces” had
been used in an internal discussion with a senior editor about the
Southern Weekend conflict. Several Chinese journalists outside Guangdong
said Tuesday that a call by Southern Weekend reporters and editors for the
dismissal of Tuo Zhen, the top provincial propaganda official, who took up
his post in May, was probably too radical for higher authorities to accept.

The protesting journalists at Southern Weekend blame Mr. Tuo, a former
journalist, for ordering a drastic change
<http://cmp.hku.hk/2013/01/03/30247/> in a New Year’s editorial that had
originally called for greater respect for constitutional rights. The
revised editorial instead praised party policies. Mr. Tuo has not
commented on the accusation.

Early Wednesday, there was online chatter among Chinese journalists that
Dai Zigeng, the publisher of The Beijing News, had balked at an order from
the Central Propaganda Department to print an editorial attacking Southern
Weekend. A truncated version ran on Wednesday deep inside the paper, and
several Beijing News reporters confirmed that Mr. Dai had been
uncomfortable with it.

A former editor for the Nanfang Media Group, which includes Southern
Weekend, said provincial propaganda officials and disgruntled journalists
talked Tuesday in Guangzhou. The talks focused on the journalists’ demands
for an inquiry into the New Year’s episode and for the newspaper’s
managers to rescind a statement that absolved Mr. Tuo of responsibility
for the editorial.

“They want that statement to be removed, and they also want assurances
about relaxing controls on journalists — not removing party oversight, but
making it more reasonable, allowing reporters to challenge officials,” the
editor said. “The other main demand is for an impartial explanation of
what happened, an accounting so it won’t happen again.”

Senior Chinese officials have not commented publicly on the censorship
dispute at the paper, which could test how far the recently appointed
Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping, will go in support of more open
economic and political policies.

“I don’t believe that Xi is totally hypocritical when he talks about
reform,” said Chen Min, a prominent opinion writer for Southern Weekend
who was forced out of the newspaper in 2011 during a party-led crackdown
on potential dissent.

Defenders of Communist orthodoxy turned up at the newspaper headquarters
on Tuesday to make the case for firm party control of the media.
“We support the Communist Party. Shut down the traitor newspaper,” said a
cardboard sign held up by one of 10 or so conservative demonstrators.
“Southern Weekend has an American dream,” another sign said. “We don’t
want the American dream. We want the Chinese dream.”

Most of the party supporters refused to give their names. One who did,
Yang Xingfa, 50, from Hunan Province, said: “Southern Weekend belongs to
the people. However, the paper always ignores the achievements of the
Chinese Communist Party and asks why China isn’t more like the United
States. Outrageous!”

The participants said they had come on their own initiative.

The dueling protests outside the newspaper headquarters reflected the
political passions and tensions raised by the quarrel over censorship.
Finding a resolution to the standoff poses a challenge both to the central
authorities and to Hu Chunhua
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/world/asia/a-rising-party-leader-in-chin
a-is-elevated-yet-again.html>, the new party chief of Guangdong and a
potential candidate to succeed Mr. Xi in a decade.

Hundreds of bystanders watched and took photos on cellphones as the party
supporters shouted at the 20 or more protesters who had gathered to
denounce censorship, and shoving matches broke out.

One defender of the Southern Weekend journalists was Liang Taiping, 28, a
poet who wore a Guy Fawkes mask popularized by “V for Vendetta,” the
Hollywood movie and British comic book. Mr. Liang said he had bought the
mask after watching the movie recently on state-run China Central
Television, which had surprised many Chinese with its willingness to show
the film uncut, since the film advocates the overthrow of a one-party
dictatorship.

“It’s the only newspaper in China that’s willing to tell the truth,” said
Mr. Liang, who added that he had traveled by train about 350 miles from
the southern city of Changsha. “What’s the point of living if you can’t
even speak freely?”

Edward Wong reported from Guangzhou, and Chris Buckley from Hong Kong.
Jonah M. Kessel contributed reporting from Guangzhou, and Jonathan
Ansfield from Beijing. Mia Li contributed research from Guangzhou.