Security tight on Southern Weekly protest anniversary in Guangzhou
Heavy police presence on year anniversary of protests at paper over government censors
Police were lining the streets around the headquarters of the Southern Weekly in Guangzhou on the first anniversary of a rare protest supporting journalists who went on strike after a row with censors.
A heavy police presence could be seen outside the company's offices beginning on Saturday, with uniformed and plain-clothes officers patrolling the entrance and nearby streets and alleys yesterday.
Five civil rights activists were detained by police this weekend, in addition to two detained earlier, in August and March.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the newspaper's office on January 7 last year to stage a series of peaceful demonstrations in support of the striking journalists. The editorial staff at the paper were unhappy about government censorship of a New Year's editorial calling on central authorities to implement the country's constitution.
A Southern Weekly employee, who asked not be named, said the authorities had wanted to stop any repeat of last year's protests.
"Precautionary measures are in place because of the one-year anniversary of the Southern Weekly incident," the employee said. "The police presence has not affected our work. We just needed to take a bigger detour to fetch things."