Former 'Southern Weekly' journalists want propaganda chief Tuo Zhen to go
Former staff at a Guangdong weekend newspaper sign letter condemning propaganda tsar for making changes to editorial on its New Year edition
The row over the propaganda authorities' interference in the Southern Weekly newspaper deepened yesterday, with former journalists and interns at the paper calling for the resignation of Guangdong propaganda chief Tuo Zhen.
In a rare, direct confrontation with authorities, 51 of its former staff denounced Tuo's interference as "ignorant and excessive".
"In this era where we see growing open-mindedness, his actions are muddle-headed and careless," they said in an open letter. "Tuo is unable to hold his current position, and should be forced to resign and make an open apology."
The action by the former employees came after the newspaper's editorial staff issued an open letter demanding an investigation into alterations to its new year edition, published on Thursday, which staff blamed on Tuo.
The alterations, which staff said were done without their consent, saw an introductory message commenting positively on the Communist Party forced onto the front page. The headline of the package's commentary was amended to "We are closer than ever before to our dreams", along with other changes, including dropping articles about anti-Japanese protests.
The former employees said the changes were against party interests and its emphasis on opening up.
"We oppose this brutal media management style. This style partly originates from personal interest, and partly from bureaucracy. But this is catastrophic to the media and the party," it said.