Locustland | Guangdong censor's clumsy hatchet job sparks fierce backlash
Guangdong's propaganda chief canned one newspaper's lofty look forward to 2013 and ran his own bland piece in its place; Southern Weekly, it turns out, is still too sacred a cow for the Communist Party to mess with, judging from the intensity of public anger in response.
The first big political scandal of 2013 has been delivered courtesy of Tuo Zhen, propaganda chief of Guangdong province.
Earlier this week, Tuo spiked the annual editorial address run by the widely respected Southern Weekend newspaper, the latest issue of which hit shelves today. Tuo then replaced the address with a short bland message lined with officialese, referring repeatedly to Xi Jinping as the key for China to realise all its dreams.
For his "rape", as it's being called, of the news weekly's meagre editorial independence, Tuo's has become a household name overnight as furious media professionals and netizens across the country have raised discussion over the censored address to the top of social media trending topic lists.
The original text, “China's Dream, a Difficult Dream”, instead of being censored, can now be found easily on various websites.
Talk of protests and resignations began soon after the scandal broke online on Wednesday night.
