Category Archives: Censorship

Crackdown on Anti-Censorship Protestors mdash;NTD China News, January 10, 2013
In today #39;s NTD China News, police in southern Guangdong province haved moved in on protestors supporting Southern Weekly. Some were taken into vans, as the paper resumes normal printing for its Thursday edition. A defense attorney says Beijing courts have refused to hear an appeal by his client. Cao Dong, a Falun Gong practitioner, was sentenced to labor camp last June without any legal process. China #39;s Academy of Social Sciences has published a report, saying the Chinese society has become less trusting, both of one another and of public institutions. China #39;s customs officials have posted a surprise surge in exports for December. The former head of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has told ABC News that Chinese regulators have not cooperated to track down Chinese firms suspected of investor fraud in the United States. Apple Inc #39;s Chief Executive Tim Cook is in China. He met with the head of China Mobile, likely to discuss a deal to have the world #39;s largest mobile carrier sell Apple #39;s iPhones. Taiwan-based Foxconn is facing bribery allegations in China. Both Chinese authorities and Foxconn say they are investigating the staff members involved. Chinese immigrants to Italy are packing their bags and leaving the country, as the economy there continues on a downward slide.

By: NTDonChina

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Crackdown on Anti-Censorship Protestors —NTD China News, January 10, 2013 - Video

CHINESE students are rekindling an interest in politics thanks to a series of epic scandals and the advent of social media.

Students at an elite Shanghai high school told Fairfax Media they were cautiously following news of a rare journalists' rebellion at the newspaper Southern Weekend via microblog accounts, despite frenetic online censorship and fiery propaganda edicts.

And they are taking sides ahead of the ''trial of the century'', featuring maverick politician Bo Xilai, which authorities have signalled will begin soon.

Bo's family had received in-principle official approval to hire a high-profile lawyer, Shen Zhigeng, said a source close to the matter, and Xinhua news agency announced on Wednesday night that his file has been handed over to the judicial system.

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The former Communist Party boss of Chongqing municipality has been officially accused of massive corruption, abuses of power, illicit sexual liaisons and involvement in his wife's murder of Englishman Neil Heywood.

One student said Bo was ''a good guy'' because of the fight he led against mafia figures in his Yangtze River metropolis. Another said Bo was guilty of ''inner party'' misdeeds that would never be disclosed.

Pu Zhiqiang, a leading lawyer, said Bo's trial would not lead any closer to truth or rule of law because there was no prospect of it being anything but a piece of theatre for the purposes of ''political power struggle''.

However, even the prospect of the most show-stopping trial since Madame Mao is being overshadowed by the open media revolt against tightening censorship that began last week at Southern Weekend.

Unconfirmed reports say journalists at Southern Weekend reached a peace deal overnight, but not before the anti-censorship rebellion had spread to other key media outlets and the news had penetrated deep into Chinese society.

Excerpt from:
Censorship battle captivates Chinese students

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

Published: Jan. 10, 2013 at 1:42 AM

BEIJING, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The events set off by the anti-censorship protest by the staff of a Chinese newspaper may force China's new leaders toward political reforms, says an expert.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Minxin Pei, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said Chinese Communist Party authorities seem to have temporarily defused the mini-crisis brought on by the protest against the "ham-fisted censorship" at the Southern Weekly in Guangdong province.

Under a deal reached Wednesday to settle the censorship protest, whose details were not disclosed, authorities reportedly had allowed the highly popular Southern Weekend (also called Southern Weekly) to publish Thursday.

In return, journalists at the newspaper may have agreed not to publicly air their grievances about Tuo Zhen, propaganda head for Guangdong province, who had been accused of censorship. The journalists had threatened to strike over a New Year's editorial on political reform that was allegedly censored and rewritten by a local propaganda official.

The incident comes as the Chinese Communist party made its leadership transition at its congress last November, with the reform-minded Xi Jinping taking the helm, along with the six members of the powerful Politburo Standing committee.

Professor Pei wrote provincial party official have promised to relax some of the recently imposed censorship measures such as prior approval of reporting topics and examination of copy before publication and in return, the journalists would end their walkout.

"On the surface, this outcome may not seem worth celebrating," Pei wrote. "After all, the party did not meet a key demand of the protesting newspapermen: sacking the local propaganda chief who had allegedly eviscerated the newspaper's New Year editorial calling for constitutional rule in China."

Pei also warned local officials, despite the deal, may likely retaliate against the newspaper's editorial once the incident loses media spotlight.

"Nevertheless, the protest over censorship at Southern Weekly and the Party's modest concessions constitute an important development" since Xi became the new leader.

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Censorship incident tests leadership

State Media Blames Foreign Forces over Southern Weekly Censorship Row
After Southern Weekly exposed the meddling of Guangdong #39;s propaganda chief in their newspaper, Chinese citizens began to protest. In a rare display of tolerance, the Chinese regime let the protests happen. Now however, it appears they are starting to clamp down. According to China Digital Times, a website operated by students at the University of California, China #39;s Central Propaganda Department issued this notice to media outlets around the country on Monday. After asserting that the Communist Party must control the media, the directive blames, quote, "external hostile forces", for the escalating situation. The directive then orders media outlets to repost this editorial by state-run Global Times. opinion.huanqiu.com The article claims free media cannot exist under China #39;s current political climate. And again points to overseas forces for fanning the protest. The piece has been derided online. Some news portals did repost it mdash;but with a clear disclaimer that the views are not their own. news.qq.com Outside the headquarters of the Southern Media Group on Tuesday, supporters have continued to gather for a second day. This man in a wheelchair holds a sign that reads: "Support Southern Weekly. No More news censorship. Give me back my freedom of speech." [NUMBER 7 ON REUTER #39;S SHOTLIST] A minor scuffle broke out between these demonstrators, and this smaller group. They #39;re here to support the Communist Party and quote "the crackdown of traitor media." Officially, Chinese leaders ...

By: NTDTV

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State Media Blames Foreign Forces over Southern Weekly Censorship Row - Video

China Journalists On Strike Over Censorship
01/07/2013 A quite unprecedented event has hit the Chinese southern city of Guangzhou: Hundreds of people gathered outside the office of a liberal newspaper after a leading New Year article calling for more press freedom was deleted from the daily #39;s website. "We want press freedom, constitutionalism and democracy," read one of the banners at the protests outside the headquarters of Southern Weekly. Monday demonstration in the capital of Guangdong province was mostly reported via social networks. More: leaksource.wordpress.com twitter.com

By: LeakSourceNews

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China Journalists On Strike Over Censorship - Video

Southern Weekly has long been the most daring of Chinese publications, perhaps enjoying a lower level of scrutiny from Beijing due to its base in the city of Guangzhou, just north of Hong Kong.

The paper now finds itself, however, at the center of a battle over censorship in the country that is spinning wildly out of control. As The Atlantic's James Fallows notes, it could be a very important issue for China in 2013 or it could go nowhere, we don't really know yet.

The situation began over the New Year, when the newspaper staff prepared to publish an article titled "Chinas Dream, the Dream of Constitutionalism". The article, part of a yearly tradition, would this year openly call for reform in the country.

Between the editing and the publication, the core of the article was changed: the new title would be "We are closer than ever before to our dreams" and the article would have a very pro-government stance.

Staff at the newspaper were furious feeling that local propaganda boss Tuo Zhen had overstepped even China's strong censorship laws by editing the article after it was sent out to publication. Editors took to Weibo, China's popular microblogging service, to denounce the new article. An open letter was published on the service, accusing the censors of "raping" the newspaper's editorial judgement.

"We demand an investigation into the incident, which has seen proper editorial procedure severely violated and a major factual error printed," the open letter said, according to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (the letter has since been deleted from Weibo).

Two subsequent open letters were posted online, the second of which was signed and openly called for strikes.

By January 7th, the newspaper's staff were in the street protesting something unheard of at a major newspaper for over two decades, SCMP reports. Protests spread amongst universities in Guangzhou and Nanjing. Perhaps the best indication of the issue's spread is the fact that Weibo's most popular user, actress Yao Chen, posted a message in support of the strikes to her 31 million followers. "One word of truth outweighs the whole world," she said, quoting Soviet-era Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Yao's words show how far a relatively wonky debate over censorship had gone in China.

"When a Chinese ingnue, beloved for her comedy, doe-eyed looks, and middle-class charm, istweetingher fans the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, we may be seeing a new relationship between technology, politics, and Chinese prosperity," Evan Osnos of the New Yorker observed this week.

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A Chinese Censorship Scandal Is Spiraling Out Of Control

GUANGZHOU, China (AP) Communist Party-backed management and rebellious editors at an influential weekly newspaper have defused a high-profile standoff over censorship that turned into a test of the new Chinese leadership's tolerance for political reform.

Under an agreement reached Tuesday, editors and reporters at the Southern Weekly will not be punished for protesting and stopping work in anger over a propaganda official's heavy-handed rewriting of a New Year's editorial last week, according to two members of the editorial staff. One, an editor, said propaganda officials will no longer directly censor content prior to publication.

The staff members asked not to be identified because they feared retaliation after they and other employees were told not to speak to foreign media. Executives at the newspaper and its parent company, the state-owned Nanfang Media Group, declined comment other than to say the Southern Weekly would publish as normal Thursday.

Aside from getting the presses rolling, the agreement appears likely to deflate the confrontation that presented a knotty challenge to Chinese leader Xi Jinping two months after taking office. While the crisis began over the propaganda official's rewriting of the editorial calling for better constitutional governance to include praise for the party, it soon evolved into calls for free expression and political reform.

Expressions of support for the newspaper poured across the Internet and, for two days this week, protesters came by the hundreds to the gates of the compound housing the Southern Weekly. On Tuesday, supporters of the newspaper squared off against flag-waving Communist Party loyalists near the compound off a busy street in Guangzhou, one of China's richest and most commercially vibrant cities.

Some 30 uniformed police officers stood guard outside the compound, as a handful of protesters showed up for a third day Wednesday, renewing calls for press freedom.

Defusing the crisis took the intervention of Hu Chunhua, the newly installed party chief of Guangdong, the province where Guangzhou is located, according to an editorial staff member and an academic in Beijing, who asked not to be named because officials at his university ordered him not to speak with the media.

The agreement to keep propaganda officials from censoring articles before they appear rolls back more intrusive controls put in place in recent months, but does not mean an end to censorship. The Propaganda Department, which controls all media in China, relies on directives, self-censorship by editors and reporters and firings of those who do not comply to enforce the party line.

The Southern Weekly editor said it was hard to call the agreement a victory because controls still remain in place and punishments, though forestalled for now, may be imposed later.

Management refused to yield to one demand: that this week's editions include an explanation of the dispute, the editor and a colleague said.

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Management, reporters defuse China censorship row

Published: Jan. 9, 2013 at 9:44 AM

GUANGZHOU, China, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- A deal in a censorship dispute was reached between leaders of China's Communist Party and the staff at a popular publication, officials said Wednesday.

One journalist working for the Guangzhou publication at the center of the dispute, said reporters were told the newspaper would publish as usual Thursday, The New York Times reported.

Journalists at Southern Weekend, one of China's most audacious and popular publications, threatened to strike over a New Year's editorial on political reform that was censored and rewritten by a local propaganda official.

While the exact terms of the compromise weren't released, indications were that journalists agreed not to publicly voice their grievances about Tuo Zhen, the propaganda chief for Guangdong province, whom they accused of censorship, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"The paper is coming out tomorrow, and the propaganda department is going to hold a meeting with staff about this tomorrow," a journalist told the Times.

Other reporters said details of the agreement remained were sketchy and that it may collapse.

The Los Angeles Times said the editor of the Beijing News reportedly resigned Wednesday after refusing to run an editorial condemning the protest at Southern Weekly and editors at other news organizations may be removed from their posts because of the issue.

Protesters gathered again Wednesday outside of the newspaper's headquarters in Guangzhou.

As celebrities and business leaders supported press freedoms online, senior propaganda officials in Beijing this week began rolling out a national strategy to rake rebel journalists and their supporters over the coals, The New York Times said. The Central Propaganda Department issued a directive to news organizations saying defiance at Southern Weekend involved "hostile foreign forces."

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Tentative deal reached in censorship flap

On Free Speech, Censorship and Banning...
Short version: Your right to speak doesn #39;t mean you have a right to an audience. Blocking people isn #39;t a violation of free speech and isn #39;t wrong.

By: Matt Dillahunty

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On Free Speech, Censorship and Banning... - Video