How they see it, January 13, 2013
Southern Weekly censorship controversy
1, Global Times
The Southern Weekly incident has sparked widespread discussion about press freedom. This is a debate that has already been taking place in China in recent decades. … Some even think that China has no press freedom when compared with the West. Is freedom of the press a principle that has a particular goal for society? Perhaps. Is, then, this goal to promote social progress? Many will answer in the affirmative. But press freedom must have limits. It should correspond to social demands, but also provide more than that. … China is walking a difficult tightrope between the nation's development and [that] of its media. We should maintain this speed as well as the co-ordination between the two. (Beijing)
2. The Washington Post
Xi Jinping faces considerable pressure for real change - not from his ossified party apparatus but from China's intelligentsia and emerging middle class. … Publications around the country baulked at running an editorial supplied by [propaganda officials] which bluntly declared that a free press was impossible. The issue of press freedom, [and] constitutionalism, is not likely to go away. A week before the Southern Weekly's editorial, 72 intellectuals released a "Proposal for Consensus on Reform" that called for adherence to the constitution. Xi is not likely to respond any time soon. … But [he] has been put on notice: His people are unlikely to accept another decade of inflexible dictatorship. (Washington)