Outrage at Guangdong newspaper forced to run party commentary

Journalists at an outspoken newspaper in Guangdong challenged the provincial propaganda authorities yesterday after the paper was forced to run a commentary glorifying the Communist Party and drop an article calling for proper implementation of the constitution.

In a rare, open challenge, journalists at the Southern Weekly said they were outraged that the propaganda office ordered changes to the paper's first edition of the new year, just a day before its publication yesterday, without the consent of the page editor who had already signed off on the page and left work.

Some were furious that an introductory message headlined "Pursuing dreams", which said Chinese people were closer to achieving their dreams because of the hard work of the party, was forced into the package. They said they believed it had come from provincial propaganda chief Tuo Zhen and also complained that it contained factual errors.

They accused the propaganda office of "raping" the paper's editorial autonomy. While recognising that the paper could not refuse to run the introductory message, they remained defiant, opening a microblog account and issuing an open letter - later removed - expressing their frustration. About 15 of them were subjected to restrictions on their use of microblogs after discussing the incident at work.

"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.

It is rare for mainland journalists to collectively and openly challenge the authorities, given that it might cost them their jobs or subject them to official harassment. But a journalist working at the paper said most editorial staff supported the action and were contemplating the next move, declining to say whether there would be a campaign to gather signatures.

"We have no other way to express our anger," another journalist at the paper said.