Chinese reporters say censorship leaves them 'dancing in handcuffs'

As the proverbial smoke clears from the battlefield where journalists from the feisty Southern Weekend newspaper fought government censors this week, the reporters victory seems to have yielded only meager gains.

Staffers at the weekly, based in the southern city of Guangzhou, won a pledge that their paper will no longer be subjected to prior censorship, according to sources close to negotiations. Instead, the authorities will rely on reporters and editors to censor themselves, as they had traditionally done.

This was not an ambitious aim, says Yan Lieshan, Southern Weekends associate chief editor until he retired a year ago. It was the most limited, most practical goal.

Still, the journalistic rebellion, which involved strike threats, represents progress, because the staff did stand up and fight against censorship, says Mr. Yan in a telephone interview.

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I dont think censorship will disappear or become less important in [the governments] management of the media, adds Gong Wenxiang, professor of Journalism at Peking University. But the openness of this conflict was new and significant.

Staff at Southern Weekend, an independent-minded weekly that in the past has been more critical of the government than most Chinese media, erupted when they found that a New Years editorial in last weeks edition, hoping for firmer rule of law in China, had been mangled on the censors orders, and its meaning traduced. Some threatened to strike.

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The dispute spread rapidly, even as the authorities sought to keep a lid on it. Supporters of the paper gathered to demonstrate outside its Guangzhou editorial offices, celebrities and other newspapers expressed their sympathy with the weekly, and the state-run tabloid Global Times drew widespread scorn on blogging platforms for an editorial blaming foreign forces for stirring unrest at Southern Weekend.

The Central Propaganda Department, the branch of the ruling Communist Party that controls the Chinese media, demanded that the countrys largest and most important newspapers and websites reprint the Global Times editorial. Most did, though they added their own disclaimers; one Beijing paper refused to print the article, but its editors finally bowed to government pressure a day later.

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Chinese reporters say censorship leaves them 'dancing in handcuffs'