2013 Southern Weekly incident
Guangdong Province's Propaganda Department bypassed standard censorship protocols by changing the headline and content of the New Year's message without first informing Southern Weekly editors.
In protest, newsroom staff posted online criticisms of the state of free expression in China and went on a four-day strike.
[1] The incident also sparked public demonstrations against press censorship which took place outside Southern Weekly's headquarters in Guangzhou, China.
[2] As a result of the incident and the accompanying demonstrations, keywords such as "Southern Weekly," "January 7 protest," and "open letter" have become sensitive topics blocked by the Chinese firewall[broken anchor].
[4] Despite its ties to the Chinese Communist Party, Southern Weekly is known for hard-hitting journalism which tests the limits of free speech in China.
[5] The paper gained worldwide recognition in 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama selected it, as opposed to the state television service, to interview him during his visit to China in that year.
Political theorists suggested that his demotion was punishment by the Party's propaganda department, angered because Southern Weekly did not seek its permission before agreeing to conduct the interview.
[6] On January 3, 2013, Southern Weekly editors awoke to find that the New Year's Greeting they had penned two days earlier had been radically revised by government censors.
The published version was titled “We Are Now Closer to Our Dream Than Ever Before” (Chinese: 我们比任何时候都更接近梦想) and was accompanied by an introductory message written by the highest-ranking member of the Guangdong Propaganda Office, Tuo Zhen.
[10][4] In early December, Southern Weekly's editorial board decided upon "travelling across the river" (过河) as the topic of the New Year's message.
Evaluation of 2012 Newsmakers: A review of the most important news stories of 2012.On the afternoon of December 24, Huang Can asked the editorial board to submit the plan to the Propaganda Department of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee.
The Propaganda Department also expressed reluctance about adding Zhang Xiaolong (张小龙), manager of Tencent's WeChat, to the list.
The Department prohibited editors from including Bai Yansong or Liu Ji (刘吉), a member of the CPPCC National Committee that publicly criticized the corruption within the Party, in the "Collection of the Past 'Chinese Dream Practitioners'" section.Next, Southern Weekly's graphic design team began planning the graphics which would accompany the paper's New Year's edition.
On the afternoon of December 31, Huang conveyed the propaganda department's comments on the piece to his coworkers, modified it somewhat, and renamed it Dream Make Life Shine (《梦想，让生命迸射光芒》).
"[11] Editorial head Shi Zhe performed some minor modifications and passed the draft on to editors Cao Junwu (曹筠武) and Yang Jibin (杨继斌).
(However at a meeting on January 5, Huang professed to change the title to We are Closer to the Dream than Any Other Times, or 《我们比任何时候都更接近梦想》, before submitting to the propaganda department).
Assistant minister (who is also the Party chief in the Nanfang Media Group) and news director of the propaganda department were also present.
[11] After the newspaper went on sale, readers found multiple issues: On January 3, some of the Southern Weekly reporters post Sina Weibo to protest Tuo Zhen's ultra vires acts.
Shortly after the meeting, the administrator of Southern Weekly's official Weibo account was asked to hand over the password, which immediately made the editorial staffs start to negotiate with the leaders of Nanfang Media Group.
[12] Some of the Southern Weekly staffs, including Zhang Hua (张华), Zhu Zhaoxin (褚朝新), and Chao Getu (朝格图), went on strike.
[19] On 9:18 pm, January 6, Wu Wei (吳蔚), director of Southern Weekly's news department, posted a statement on Sina Weibo, which was censored and removed shortly after: I have handed in the password of Sina Weibo account @SouthernWeekly to Mao Zhe, General Manager of Southern Weekly's New Media business.
(@風端 為南方周末新媒體執行官。@南方周末 官微目前已不屬於南方周末。)Soon after at 9:30 pm, @SouthernWeeklyEditorialDepartment2013 (@南周編輯部2013) posted: At the night of January 5, Southern Weekly called an emergency enlarged meeting for members of editorial board.
We are planning to constitute an investigation team on the New Year special issue immediately, complete the incident report and submit it to the higher authority.
However, at about the same time, the related authority pressured Southern Weekly to release an falsified statement through our official Weibo account, trying to shift the blame on the editors who were not even present.
[26] Gong Xiaoyue (龚晓跃), former head of Xiaoxiang Morning News, who got demoted in 2010 because of a special cover, voiced against editorial by Global Times.
The idea was reinforced by the first sentence of the article, "Rice was boiling in pot of hot porridge from the South when just served; it seems, also, to have a brave heart.
The Chinese government protects the press freedom in accordance with the laws, and gives full play to the supervisory role of the news media and citizens."
Wang Yu-chi, the Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council of the Republic of China called on Beijing to improve the news environment, and respect the press freedom.
Su Tseng-chang, the party chairman said: "A media environment with freedom of speech can help the real reform of the Chinese Communist."
