Confessional last letter of Southern Weekly's in-house censor days before he died

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A man displays a copy of the Southern Weekly at a newsstand in Guangzhou, Jan. 10, 2013. (Photo: AP)

Published: 4:06pm, 4 Apr 2013Updated: 4:13am, 29 Aug 2013

The former in-house censor of China’s leading liberal newspaper Southern Weekly died on Wednesday - just three days into his retirement.

Zeng Li had become a prominent figure during the weekly's protest against censorship in January. His farewell letter has been shared on Weibo thousands of times on Thursday and caused widespread soul-searching about the state of the media in China.

“Looking back on the last four years, I made mistakes," Zeng wrote in his farewell letter, dated March 28.

"I have killed some drafts that I shouldn’t have killed, I have deleted some content that I shouldn’t have deleted, but in the end I woke up, I would rather not carry out my political mission than go against my conscience, I don’t want be a sinner against history.”

In January, Southern Weekly with its long tradition of liberal journalism had been caught up in the most vociferous protest against censorship by Chinese newsmakers in recent Chinese history.

For three days, the weekly's staff protested outside their Guangzhou offices against the traditional new year's editorial having been replaced by provincial censors without consulting the editors. Thousands expressed their support online.