Censorship Row Shows China's Tight Grip on Media

China's new Communist Party leaders want to appear more open, but they're not about to give up control of the media. That's the lesson of a dustup involving an influential newspaper whose staff briefly rebelled against especially heavy-handed censorship.

The staff of Southern Weekly returned to work after some controls were relaxed, but public demands for the ouster of the top censor were ignored. Some observers took solace in the fact that no journalists were punished at least not yet.

"The fact that no one is being immediately punished is a victory. That is not insignificant," said Steve Tsang, a China politics expert at the University of Nottingham in Britain. "It's a smart use of the party's power but it's not actually making any compromise in terms of the basic fundamental principles of the party staying fully in control on anything that really matters."

China's new leader, Xi Jinping, has raised reformist hopes and struck an especially populist note in vowing to tackle official corruption. In an early December speech he praised China's constitution and said people's rights must be respected, comments that helped set the stage for the censorship clash.

The constitution grants Chinese many rights, including freedom of speech and of the press, but it is often ignored. Many in China interpret the constitution as limiting the power of the ruling Communist Party.

AP

"No organization or individual has the special right to overstep the constitution and law, and any violation of the constitution and the law must be investigated," Xi said. Many media commentators viewed his remarks as an opportunity to push for the rule of law the party has long promised but failed to deliver.

The staff at the Southern Weekly newspaper in Guangzhou a southern city known for freewheeling commerce, political boldness and year-round flowers joined the fray with a New Year's editorial extolling adherence to the constitution as the new Chinese dream.

Journalists say the provincial censor morphed the item into a piece praising the party and did so without running it by the editorial department. That violated an unwritten rule in the way censorship normally is carried out.

For three days, hundreds of supporters gathered in front of the newspaper offices on sidewalks scented with osthmanthus blossoms to shout for greater press freedom and wave banners. One man wrapped himself in newspaper to show his solidarity. But the dispute also drew political conservatives who called the newspaper's journalists "traitors" and "running dogs."

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Censorship Row Shows China's Tight Grip on Media