CHINA: The chief editor of one of China's boldest newspapers has been dismissed in what observers said was a move to strengthen Communist Party control over the media.
Yang Bin, editor-in-chief of the Beijing News - a tabloid that has often reported on official mistakes and misdeeds - was removed yesterday, Chinese journalists and media experts said.
The precise reasons for Mr Yang's dismissal were unclear. But Pu Zhiqiang, a Beijing-based lawyer who often represents journalists and knew of Mr Yang's removal, said party officials had accused the paper of "multiple errors".
The dismissal of Mr Yang and two other senior editors was announced by officials at an afternoon meeting, and some senior staff walked out of the meeting in protest, said a reporter at the paper. "A lot of good reporters may leave," said the reporter.
Editors from the Guangming Daily, a conservative parent newspaper, were moved into the Beijing News to "strengthen influence" and may directly assume the duties of those removed, according to another editor familiar with both newspapers.
The media sources all requested their names not be used, citing the sensitivity of propaganda controls in China.
The Beijing News was started in 2003 as a joint venture between the Southern Daily newspaper group - the Guangzhou-based owner of another two of China's most adventurous papers - and the politically prominent but financially strapped Guangming Daily, which controls 51 percent of the paper.
The Beijing News established a reputation for courageous reporting and commentary, despite the Communist Party's strict but sometimes erratic control over the press.
Its notable reports included exposing a bloody crackdown by officials on protesting peasants in the northern province of Dingzhou, Hebei, in June. Six farmers were killed, and local officials were later dismissed and charged.
In 2004, an editor who helped found the Beijing News, Cheng Yizhong, was arrested on embezzlement charges related to his time at another crusading newspaper, the Southern Metropolitan Daily. He was released without charge after five months. Mr Yang replaced Mr Cheng as editor-in-chief at the Beijing News. A media expert who knew of Mr Yang's dismissal said the Beijing News has long been in the censors' sights.- (Reuters)