Lifting the requirement to subscribe to official publications will ease farmers' burden, says ministry and a key party body
The three-month ban on mandatory subscriptions to Communist Party newspapers has received a new boost, with the party's central disciplinary committee and the Ministry of Agriculture linking the prohibition to efforts to ease the financial difficulties of rural people.
Earlier, observers had noted a weakening in the official resolve to do away with the unpopular, but lucrative, practice of forcing people to buy party publications
But the latest attempt to tighten the party's internal discipline shows this determination to curb the practice of coercive subscription goes beyond mere token gestures, media experts said.
'This is an effective move to broaden the agenda, pushing the campaign in the name of rural welfare,' said an editor of a party newspaper.
Song Jianwu, a professor of media economics at People's University, said that highlighting the importance of reducing farmers' financial burden would make it easier to close some rural newspapers.
Of the 2,100 newspapers published on the mainland, more than 30 per cent are party papers. Professor Song believes the policy will lead to the closure or merger of about 90 per cent of local papers.
