CHINA FIRM ON ABSOLUTE MEDIA CONTROL
• Scribes' protests leave Communist Party unfazed.• Govt. calls US support interference.
Unlike democratic countries like India, the UK, the USA etc., the media in China is absolutely under the control of the government and censorship there is resorted to despite journalistic protests and an outcry from the democratic world.
A rare protest by journalists of a state-run Chinese weekly against official control started on January 8, 2012 amid tacit support from other media outlets not-with-standing the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC)'s assertion that it had an 'absolute and unshakeable' control over them.
Separately the Chinese foreign ministry also denounced the US for expressing support for the journalists' agitation against the press censorship for saying it amounted to interference in China's internal affairs.
“China is opposed to any country’s, any person’s interference in internal affairs in any form” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told the media in Beijing.
His comments came in response to state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland’s statement that the US has long defended and supported the right of media freedom for Chinese journalists and for international journalists in China.
While several media outlets backed the journalists, news portals carried a state-sanctioned editorial criticizing the journalists. But, they added a disclaimer saying that the piece did not mean that they shared the views expressed in it, the report said.
Journalists of the Southern Weekly, a Chinese language weekly published from Guangzhou, in an unprecedented move, held a demonstration outside their office protesting against the interference by a Communist Party official.
Reports from Guangzhou said the protests continued and police intervened to stop scuffles between scribes and a small group of government supporters.
But the most decisive response came from the CPC, which in a memo circulated to various media units firmly stated that the official media would remain in its complete control. "The party has absolute control of China's media.
This basic principle is unshakeable," the memo issued to party chiefs and media officials said.
Earlier China had shut the website of a leading pro-reform magazine on January 4, 2012 apparently because it ran an article calling for political reform and constitutional government, sensitive topics for the Communist Party which brooks no dissent.
Yanhuang Chunqiu (China Through the Ages) is an influential Beijing magazine that features essays from reformist retired officials. In a message posted on its official Sina Weibo microblog, the magazine said that it had been informed that the site's registration had been cancelled and that it had not been given a reason.
Wu Si, the magazine's chief editor, did not answer calls seeking comment. Attempts to open the website (www.yhcqw.com) bring up a cartoon picture of a policeman holding up a badge and the message that the site has been closed.
However, the article written in the form of a new year's message, is still up on the magazine's microblog.
"In more than 30 years of reform, the abuses caused by political reform lagging economic reform have become daily more visible, and the factors for social instability have gradually accumulated. Promoting reform of the political system is an urgent task," the piece says.
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