China: Censorship Row Newspaper Published

A Chinese newspaper at the centre of a strike over censorship has been published after journalists and Communist Party officials appeared to reach a tentative agreement.

The Southern Weekly appeared as planned on newsstands in Beijing and Shanghai, though copies of the paper were not obviously available in its hometown, Guangzhou.

No mention of the three-day dispute could be found in the latest edition of the paper. Staff walked out on Monday in a rare strike, which quickly developed into an ideological debate over free speech in China.

The newspaper's journalists had been angered after the local Communist Party propaganda chief ordered officials to change an editorial they had written.

The original version of the editorial had called on the incoming Chinese leadership to push through political reforms. The censored version was a simple plaudit for the Communist Party.

Supporters of the journalists gathered outside the newspaper's office in Guangzhou for three days this week.

With remarkably unusual defiance, the group called for the overthrow of the Communist Party and the installation of a free media and independent judiciary.

Police watched and photographed them but, unusually, no attempt was made to shut down the protest. Some of the protesters removed masks in front of police to prove they had no fear of being photographed.

Temporary CCTV cameras were installed on trees outside the offices. Some protesters said they feared they may be arrested in the coming days once the dispute has died down.

The details of the deal that allowed the paper to be published are not clear, though it is understood staff agreed their editor-in-chief would be fired and in return they would not be punished for their protest.

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China: Censorship Row Newspaper Published