CHINA: Popular weekly back on streets after China's U-turn on ban

Rare victory for media, thanks to outcry from party elders and editors

Straits Times
Wednesday, March 1, 2006

By Clarissa Oon

Beijing --- A feisty weekly newspaper supplement banned a month ago will hit the streets once again today, marking a rare victory for Chinese journalists in an otherwise repressed media environment.

The Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department moved to ban the weekly Freezing Point in late January after it published an essay critiquing China's official history textbooks, one of many articles in the supplement which had riled the censors.

Little did the censors know that they would be getting a fight on their hands, much less a black eye from journalists and Communist Party elders who hit out at the move.

An open letter by the editor of Freezing Point, protesting against the ban in January, sparked an outcry in domestic and international media circles.

This was followed by a sharply worded letter from Mao Zedong's former secretary Li Rui and 12 other former party officials and senior scholars, criticising the ban by the Central Propaganda Department.

The onslaught of public criticism forced the department to reverse its gag order on Freezing Point.

It marked a highly unusual move for Beijing, which has been tightening its grip on the state media in the face of continued domestic insecurities and political unrest in its neighbourhood.

China's leadership has been troubled by growing dissent in the poorer rural areas, and has vowed to prevent a repeat of the 'colour revolutions' that brought down authoritarian governments in Central Asia and eastern Europe.

But differences within the government over how to manage the media and a heightened sensitivity to public opinion mean that journalists could still test the boundaries using a series of tactical advances and retreats, said analysts and media insiders.

'What we see in the shutdown and restarting of Freezing Point is a compromise between different forces,' said Singapore-based China watcher Lai Hongyi.

'The government is also concerned about the public reaction. It does not want to overplay its hand and be seen as the 'thought police',' he added.

The propaganda department is the main institution monitoring media personnel and controlling the content of the country's newspapers, radio and television.

It has been directly or indirectly responsible for a slew of recent dismissals of editors, including Freezing Point's Mr Li Datong and the Beijing News' editor-in-chief Yang Bin.

Senior Chinese journalists who spoke to The Straits Times said they were not surprised by this crackdown.

Said an editor of a major daily in southern China: 'The recent sackings are no different from a manager firing an employee who is not performing to his satisfaction.'

In the last 10 years, media content here has become more diverse and adventurous with the opening up of state-controlled media to market forces.

Newspapers now have to compete for eyeballs and advertising dollars, amid the unparalleled access to information available on the Internet. While exposed to Western ideas of freedom of expression, Chinese journalists are hamstrung by a legal system where the guarantee of the right to free speech is circumscribed by anti-sedition and state secrecy laws.

However, the periodic shifting of the out-of-bounds markers has given journalists some latitude.

For instance, more open debate was evident in the Chinese press in the last years of former president Jiang Zemin's rule.

Likewise, initial signs during President Hu Jintao's first year in office in 2003 had pointed to a more relaxed attitude towards the media.

Freezing Point's Mr Li, who edited the supplement for the state-run China Youth Daily, recounted how Mr Hu, shortly after becoming the Communist Party's general secretary, became quite upset after watching a CCTV news bulletin.

'He called up CCTV's head and said, 'What's going on? I've seen 26 minutes of your news and so far it's all government officials and meetings, and not a single story about ordinary people',' said Mr Li.

But things have since changed.

'Mr Hu, in pushing for a way to establish his power base, is under pressure from certain conservative forces who feel the media is out of line,' said Dr Lai.

While some observers think that this restraining of the media will remain as long as Mr Hu is President, others say one has to wait till he cements his grip on power at the 17th Party Congress in October next year to know for sure.

Said Associate Professor David Plott, deputy director of the University of Hong Kong's journalism and media studies centre: 'For the faction which wants greater control, you'll see advances and retreats.

'Likewise for those who want more space, I suspect you'll see more creative ways of challenging efforts to stifle the press.'

Ex-editor now has bigger following

By Tracy Quek

Beijing --- Bespectacled and with a scholarly air, former Freezing Point editor Li Datong has now acquired cult status, not just for standing up to China's powerful media czars, but also for scoring a rare victory over them as well.

The 52-year-old recently joined the ranks of outspoken newsmen sacked by Beijing as part of stepped-up efforts to exert pressure on the media and the Internet.

Despite being told that he would have no part in editing Freezing Point or Bing Dian -- the feisty weekly supplement that he ran for the state-run China Youth Daily for 11 years -- when publishing resumes today, Mr Li hints at a comeback before any final curtain call.

Mr Li and deputy Lu Yuegang may have been shunted into a research branch of the paper, but both say their work in the newsroom is far from over.

The straight-talking veteran editor told The Straits Times: 'In this world, there are those who, when removed from their positions, vanish like mist. Then there are those who do not lose their influence.

'Now I can call a foreign news organisation at any time, say I want to speak and they will listen. I would say my voice has become louder.'

It certainly has, and Mr Li has the Internet to thank for that.

Once he got wind of the gag order on Jan 24, he wrote an open letter condemning the 'unconstitutional' and 'illegal' closure of the weekly, and posted it online the next day.

One click, and news of Bing Dian's shutdown spread like wildfire on the Internet, via blogs, e-mail messages and postings.

State censors scrambled to remove any trace of their letter, but not before its subject matter had been spread widely online and popped up on foreign sites.

In interviews with other media, Mr Li said he expected that the revived Bing Dian would be obliged to take on a more compliant tone and it would no longer be allowed to continue with its investigative, combative brand of journalism.

Asked if he would be able to stomach this, he said: 'Of course when the paper resumes, the government will instruct that it is controlled more strictly. But what of it? It's not as if they have ever slackened control.

'We are still hoping for a compromise and we are preparing to submit a plan. If the higher powers agree to accept our plan, then Bing Dian can carry on along its original route.'

He added: 'We are hopeless optimists. We will never lose hope.'

Recent crackdowns

  • Dec 28, 2005: Yang Bin, the editor-in-chief of the Beijing News, is fired after publishing politically sensitive articles.
  • Dec 30, 2005: Xia Yitao, deputy editor-in-chief of Southern Metropolis Daily, is dismissed over a report about a vice-governor receiving a demerit after a deadly coal mine accident in Meizhou.
  • Jan 24, 2006: Freezing Point, a weekly supplement of China Youth Daily, is forced to close after its editor, Mr Li Datong, is accused of running stories incompatible with the mainstream ideology. Following the closure, Communist Party elders write an open letter condemning the shutdown, which brings about a reversal of the decision. Freezing Point will resume publication today, but without Mr Li as editor.
  • Feb 2, 2006: Mr Wu Xianghu, 41, an editor at the Taizhou Evening News, dies after sustaining injuries from a beating by traffic police last October. The assault is a reprisal for a report criticising high licensing fees for electric bicycles. A senior official is fired for his role in the attack.
  • Feb 8, 2006: Mr Chen Jieren, 34, chief editor of The Public Interest Times, is sacked after running a story criticising the standard of English of the newly launched government website.
  • Feb 27, 2006: Mr Li Yuanlong, a journalist with the Bijie Daily newspaper in southwestern Guizhou province, is charged with 'inciting subversion of state sovereignty' for posting politically sensitive essays on the Internet.

Date Posted: 3/1/2006