Guangdong propagandists fight back amid outlash over Southern Weekly censorship

China abroad | China at home

There were, it turns out, actually two versions of Southern Weekend's 2013 New Year address - the one mentioned here, censored by Guangdong propaganda chief Tuo Zhen in place of his own writing, and the original text, "China’s Dream, the Dream of Constitutionalism", explained in detail here by China Media Project's David Bandurski:

According to chatter on Weibo, there were three versions of the letter. The first was the original by Dai Zhiyong, from which the above translation comes. The second was the draft from editors at the newspaper. The third, the version that eventually went to print, contains further changes now being attributed to Tuo Zhen (庹震), Guangdong’s provincial propaganda chief, as well as an introductory message from Tuo Zhen.

Thursday afternoon and evening saw Sina Weibo silence or delete microblog accounts belonging to a number of Southern Weekly employees and supporters, a sympathetic report broadcast on Shanghai's Dragon TV (see above), a statement released by some senior editors at the newspaper, and rumours that staff are preparing to demand Tuo be firedresign.

Anne Henochowicz at China Digital Times has discovered a long list of terms related to the incident are currently being filtered from search results on Sina Weibo.

According to former Guangzhou-based journalist Wen Yunchao, all media outlets in Guangdong province were ordered yesterday by local propaganda outfits to desist from discussion the controversy surrounding Southern Weekly in any public forums.

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