CHINA: The sacked editor of a Chinese weekly magazine which was critical of the government made a forthright plea for greater press freedom yesterday, after propaganda chiefs said the supplement would resume publication but without him at the helm.
The state-controlled China Youth Daily said it had decided to recommence printing Freezing Point or Bing Dian, but founder Li Datong and his deputy editor Lu Yaogang, would be sent to a research department.
"All they can do is get rid of Li Datong and Lu Yaogang, people who represent the blood and bones of China's news, in exchange for the rebirth of a Freezing Point which has no soul," the two journalists said.
"What do the people want? The freedom of publication and expression that the constitution grants," they wrote.
The ruling Communist Party has been tightening its grip on power and cracking down on rights campaigners, lawyers, journalists and academics, while imposing more and more controls on publications and on the internet. But the media crackdown has been criticised, even by former propaganda overlords.
Earlier this week, a group of retired senior officials and scholars, including the late Chairman Mao Zedong's former secretary, Li Rui, denounced the closure and called on the Communist Party to ease censorship.
Mr Li started Freezing Point in 1995 and turned it into a popular weekly supplement with articles and essays that were often critical of the party line.
Jiao Guobiao, a former professor of journalism at Beijing University who was himself fired for attacking the Communist Party's propaganda department, said it was another sign of zero tolerance of criticism and press freedom under president Hu Jintao.
"This incident shows the central government takes a very hard line towards the news industry. It shows that they are not making any concessions on these matters. Since Hu Jintao came to power, there has been much tighter control over the press," said Mr Jiao.
Freezing Point was shut ostensibly because of an article by a senior historian, Yuan Weishi, who criticised Chinese history texts for not dealing with the brutality of the anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion that swept China in the early 20th century.
In a separate development, several Chinese activists taking part in a hunger strike against the government's hiring of thugs to beat up a civil rights campaigner have gone missing and their colleagues believe they have been detained by police.