Chinese Southern Weekly journalists protest censorship and call for propaganda chief's resignation

[smurfy]

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20911823[/url]

[quote=BBC News][B]Journalists at a leading Chinese newspaper have called for a propaganda chief to resign, in a rare protest against censorship.[/B]

Prominent former staff and interns at the Southern Weekly urged the official to quit after he changed an editorial into a Communist Party tribute.

They accused him of being "dictatorial" in an era of "growing openness".

The row comes as the website of a liberal journal was closed, after it ran an essay urging political reform.

The influential online magazine, Yanhuang Chunqiu (or China Through the Ages), had called on China's leaders to guarantee constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and assembly.

Correspondents say the censorship row is an early test of whether China's new leaders, announced in November, will be open to reforms.

[B]'Crude'[/B]

The row at the Southern Weekly - known for hard-hitting investigations and testing the limits of censorship - erupted after a new year editorial calling for guaranteed constitutional rights was changed at the last minute to one extolling the virtues of the Communist Party.

In two open letters, 35 prominent former staff and 50 interns at the paper have demanded the resignation of the provincial propaganda chief in Guangdong, Tuo Zhen.

They said the move amounted to "crude" interference.

"If the media should lose credibility and influence, then how can the ruling party make its voice heard or convince its people?" a letter on Friday said.

BBCChinese.com editor Zhuang Chen says it is thought to be the first time there has been a direct showdown between newspaper staff and party officials.

On China's popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, dozens of search terms involving the Southern Weekly controversy are reportedly being filtered.

There are reports of many users being suspended from the service.

A foreign ministry spokeswoman said China did not censor news.

While state media have been trying to paint the country's new leaders as reform-minded, the authorities have been clamping down on dissent, the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing says.

Many reformers argue that without greater freedom of expression and - more grassroots democracy - the Communist Party could face serious unrest or worse, our correspondent adds.

Chinese media are supervised by so-called propaganda departments, which often change content to align it with party thinking.

Beijing also uses extensive internet controls, known as the "Great Firewall of China", to block access to material considered subversive or pornographic.[/quote]

[Scrimp]

I wonder what will happen to them.

[Download]

[QUOTE=Scrimp;39094932]I wonder what will happen to them.[/QUOTE]

Probably shot

[laserguided]

They're just asking to disappear.

[NoDachi]

[QUOTE=laserguided;39098695]They're just asking to disappear.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=download;39098572]Probably shot[/QUOTE]

no.

Have you guys honestly never read a Chinese newspaper or something?

[Download]

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39099723]no.

Have you guys honestly never read a Chinese newspaper or something?[/QUOTE]

Yes, because I can read Chinese.

[Abrown516]

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39099723]no.

Have you guys honestly never read a Chinese newspaper or something?[/QUOTE]

Those are obviously not important if they're used to fill cocktail parasols.

[NoDachi]

[QUOTE=download;39101245]Yes, because I can read Chinese.[/QUOTE]

They run some in english.

[Faren]

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39099723]no.

Have you guys honestly never read a Chinese newspaper or something?[/QUOTE]

I don't think that's as common as you think?

[NoDachi]

[QUOTE=Faren;39104607]I don't think that's as common as you think?[/QUOTE]

What is? That people don't read Chinese news papers?

That was exactly my point. Yet they throw all these hysterical things about them going to be shot or something.

[Download]

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39104630]What is? That people don't read Chinese news papers?

That was exactly my point. Yet they throw all these hysterical things about them going to be shot or something.[/QUOTE]

Well they are a Communist Dictatorship whose response to a peaceful protest was to roll tanks into Tienanmen Square then have a few thousand people executed by the secret police

[Pierrewithahat]

[QUOTE=download;39098572]Probably shot[/QUOTE]

Please, the Chinese government is not that barbaric, rather I feel that the government will extend to them a family invitation to the nearest gulag.

[swebonny]

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39104630]What is? That people don't read Chinese news papers?

That was exactly my point. Yet they throw all these hysterical things about them going to be shot or something.[/QUOTE]

I think he was joking.

[NoDachi]

[QUOTE=Swebonny;39104681]I think he was joking.[/QUOTE]

You obviously haven't seen Download in SH before :v:

[editline]5th January 2013[/editline]

[QUOTE=download;39104658]Well they are a Communist Dictatorship whose response to a peaceful protest was to roll tanks into Tienanmen Square then have a few thousand people executed by the secret police[/QUOTE]

Well America is a freedom loving society that used to segregate people based on skin colour and send troops to shoot peaceful protesting students.

So what is your point?

[-Get_A_Life-]

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39104729]Well America is a freedom loving society that used to segregate people based on skin colour and send troops to shoot peaceful protesting students.

So what is your point?[/QUOTE]

we still do dat

[Download]

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39104729]You obviously haven't seen Download in SH before :v:

[editline]5th January 2013[/editline]

Well America is a freedom loving society that used to segregate people based on skin colour and send troops to shoot peaceful protesting students.

So what is your point?[/QUOTE]

There is nothing to suggest they have changed

[NoDachi]

[QUOTE=download;39104827]There is nothing to suggest they have changed[/QUOTE]

:rolleye:

[swebonny]

[QUOTE=download;39104658]Well they are a Communist Dictatorship whose response to a peaceful protest was to roll tanks into Tienanmen Square then have a few thousand people executed by the secret police[/QUOTE]

Well nowadays they are not going to shoot someone for being critical to the government. In that case they'd have to execute quite a lot of people.

Speaking of that, I was stopped by Chinese police in August for bringing in "forbidden". Nothing happened to me.

[QUOTE][B]then have a few thousand people executed by the secret police[/B][/QUOTE]

And what?

[smurfy]

[QUOTE=download;39104827]There is nothing to suggest they have changed[/QUOTE]

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wukan_protests]Wukan[/url]

[NoDachi]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hefei_student_protests#Aftermath[/url]

[swebonny]

Oh I can tell so much about it, but I don't want to spill too much personal info :v:

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39104854][url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hefei_student_protests#Aftermath[/url][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=smurfy;39104853][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wukan_protests]Wukan[/url][/QUOTE]

N00bz they all got executed by the secret police.

[NoDachi]

bad boys bad boys whatcha doing to doo when the secret police come for youuu

[Download]

Woops, my bad, it was only that famous guy (and a couple others) who stood in front of the tank that got knocked off by the secret police. None the less, soldiers still shot 5000 odd people (depends who you ask)

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989#Number_of_deaths[/url]

[editline]6th January 2013[/editline]

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39104854][url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hefei_student_protests#Aftermath[/url][/QUOTE]

Wasn't exactly high profile. If it was high profile they would need to have a demonstration of force to discourage others

[editline]6th January 2013[/editline]

[QUOTE=Swebonny;39104855]Oh I can tell so much about it, but I don't want to spill too much personal info :v:
[/QUOTE]

Lets hear

[swebonny]

How about, my parents survived the Tiananmen "massacre"?

Edit: All I'm trying to say is that, no, the secret police didn't round up 5000 people and shot them in the head. Shootings did happen. Friends my parents knew died that night. But they were out after the curfew, gives the soldiers no right to shoot of course, my parents didn't head out. But nothing like rounding up and executing people. Shit, then my family would be gone.

Edit: Nice 10000th post.

[NoDachi]

[QUOTE=download;39104882]Woops, my bad, it was only that famous guy (and a couple others) who stood in front of the tank that got knocked off by the secret police. None the less, soldiers still shot 5000 odd people (depends who you ask)

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989#Number_of_deaths[/url][/QUOTE]

I'm just amazed how you can equate Tienanmen square as dreadful as it was, to news paper editors being shot today.

And your only argument is "dey don't gone change".

[Download]

[QUOTE=NoDachi;39104918]I'm just amazed how you can equate Tienanmen square as dreadful as it was, to news paper editors being shot today.

And your only argument is "dey don't gone change".[/QUOTE]

If you're going to resort to making me look like an illiterate moron I'm not going to bother arguing with you

[NoDachi]

I'm still waiting for you to actually pose an argument to begin with.

Rather than just trying to shoehorn your very simplistic world-view.