Activists staged a noisy protest outside the South China Morning Post's Causeway Bay office yesterday, accusing the paper of self-censorship by downplaying coverage of the death of dissident Li Wangyang.
A score of protesters from the Democratic Party and the League of Social Democrats accused the paper of being unfair to Li and Post readers by underplaying the news in its June 7 issue.
They also accused Post Editor-in-Chief Wang Xiangwei of trying to serve Beijing's interests.
One of the protesters, League of Social Democrats legislator 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung, said: 'It is an insult to press freedom.
'If it is not self-censorship, then it was very bad news judgment by Mr Wang.'
He and fellow protesters burned a copy of the South China Morning Post before dispersing.
Wang told editorial staff at a meeting yesterday that he should have handled the case better but denied accusations of self-censorship.