Modern China?s first open war over freedom of speech accelerated

[sharon sanders]

Modern China?s first open war over freedom of speech accelerated
Alia | January 6th, 2013 - 4:02 pm


When something is referred to as an ?incidence? in China, you know that ugly things have happened. For example, the Tiananmen Square incidence?The forced replacement of Southern Weekly?s 2013 New Year greeting piece is now an ?incidence? and still evolving, with several official Southern Weekly Weibo accounts being deleted and editors on strike.This is probably the first time in communist China when journalists openly fight for freedom of speech against the government. Whether or not the ?Southern Weekly incidence? can bring significant change is still unknown, but as of now, the paper is shouting loud to everybody in the country: ?It?s war and let?s fight!.?

more...

http://offbeatchina.com/modern-chinas-first-open-war-over-freedom-of-speech-accelerated

[sharon sanders]

Re: Modern China?s first open war over freedom of speech accelerated

machine translation

Guangzhou dozens of people gathered to support the Southern Weekend [13:25]


[CNA] reportedly mainland China, Guangzhou City this morning dozens of Internet users respond to the call, in solidarity with the media gathered outside the office building of the "Southern Weekend". Hong Kong radio news reports, some holding flowers to show their support and protest against the suppression of the freedom of the press; public security alert in the scene, but did not prevent the assembly.

more...

http://iservice.libertytimes.com.tw/liveNews/news.php?no=748167&type=%E5%9C%8B%E9%9A%9B

[Shiloh]

Re: Modern China?s first open war over freedom of speech accelerated

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20929826

7 January 2013 Last updated at 12:14 ET
China newspaper journalists stage rare strike
The BBC's Martin Patience said readers had been leaving flowers at the paper's offices in support

Journalists at a major Chinese paper, Southern Weekly, have gone on strike in a rare protest against censorship.

The row was sparked last week when the paper's New Year message calling for reform was changed by propaganda officials.

Staff wrote two letters calling for the provincial propaganda chief to step down. Another row then erupted over control of the paper's microblog...

[Shiloh]

Re: Modern China?s first open war over freedom of speech accelerated

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20942641


8 January 2013 Last updated at 05:23 ET
Support for China censorship row paper Southern Weekly

Several Chinese media outlets have appeared to back journalists at a weekly newspaper embroiled in a row over censorship.

News portals carried a state-sanctioned editorial criticising the journalists.

But they added a disclaimer saying that posting the piece did not mean that they shared the views it expressed...

[Shiloh]

Re: Modern China?s first open war over freedom of speech accelerated

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z3


Chinese journalists choose quiet defiance, not mass strike, to protest censorship
By Keith B. Richburg, Updated: Thursday, January 10, 9:54 AM

BEIJING ? A threatened journalism strike in China to protest government censorship appeared to have been averted Thursday, as the reform-minded Southern Weekly newspaper appeared on newsstands and in mailboxes as scheduled.

But in a nod to the past week of turmoil, the Guangdong-based newspaper ran a brief article on the bottom of page 32 saying China?s ruling Communist Party should protect ?reasonable and constructive media? to advance reforms...

...Meanwhile, after a week of allowing anti-censorship protests outside the paper?s headquarters in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, police began taking a tougher line. Photographs and video quickly appeared on Twitter and other social media sites of officers dragged away screaming protesters.

In Beijing, where the anti-censorship movement had penetrated the newsroom of the government-owned Beijing News, Thursday?s edition of the paper contained a protest even more cryptic than the one in the Southern Weekly: an ode to the popular southern Chinese porridge dish known as ?congee,? published in the lifestyle section.

The name for Southern congee in Chinese, ?nanfang de zhou,? sounds like the name of the Southern Weekly, ?Nanfang Zhou Mo,? and the newspaper used the ode to voice thinly veiled solidarity with Southern Weekly...