The Southern Newspaper Controversy - Wonderful, there is no more concrete picture (Picture)

> The Southern Newspaper Controversy - Wonderful, there is no more concrete picture (Picture) On Tuesday, outside the Guangzhou headquarters of "Southern Weekend", an advocate of freedom of speech. Southern Weekend competes...

>An advocate for freedom of speech outside the Guangzhou headquarters of Southern Weekend on Tuesday.

Southern newspaper dispute turns into ideological conflict

Update: According to a widely circulated news on Chinese social media site Sina Weibo on Wednesday morning, Beijing News chief Dai Zigeng had argued with propaganda officials the night before over whether to reprint a Global Times editorial attacking Southern Weekend. The Beijing News, which was published on Wednesday, finally published the editorial, and several reporters from the newspaper confirmed that Dai was dissatisfied with it.

In addition, it was also circulated on Weibo that the editors and reporters of Southern Weekend had reached a preliminary agreement with propaganda officials, and the latter promised to give Southern Weekend more editorial autonomy, but the details of the agreement are currently unclear.

A reporter said in an interview that the newspaper will be published normally on Thursday. "Tomorrow's newspaper will still be published, and the Propaganda Department will have meetings with staff tomorrow," the reporter said on condition of anonymity. Several other reporters said the details of the agreement were unclear.

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Guangzhou, China Protests over censorship of one of China's most liberal newspapers degenerated into an ideological clash in the southern provincial capital on Tuesday, pitting free speech advocates against supporters of Communist rule waving red flags and portraits of Mao Zedong.

A confrontation broke out between liberals and leftists outside the headquarters of the company that publishes Southern Weekend, after some of the paper's unwilling reporters and editors bitterly protested last week against gross interference in their work by the head of Guangdong's propaganda department. Guangdong has previously had a reputation as a bastion of relatively free speech.

Beijing's top propaganda officials this week launched a nationwide campaign to demonize liberal journalists and their supporters, as scores of celebrities and business leaders rallied online in the name of freedom. The Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a directive to all news organizations, saying that Southern Weekend's strong resistance was caused by the involvement of "hostile foreign forces."

The directive from the Central Propaganda Department also requires Chinese journalists not to continue to support Southern Weekend and insists that "the party's control of the media is an unshakable basic principle." The directive was translated into English by the China Digital Times research group at the University of California, Berkeley, which studies Chinese news media.

A party media editor said that the term "hostile forces" appeared in an internal discussion with a senior editor on the conflict at Southern Weekend. Several Chinese journalists outside Guangdong said on Tuesday that disgruntled Southern Weekend reporters and editors seemed unlikely to end well, and that their call to oust Tuo Zhen, Guangdong's propaganda chief, was likely too radical to be accepted by higher authorities. Tuo Zhen became the head of Guangdong Provincial Propaganda Department in May last year.

Tuo Zhen himself was a journalist. Journalists from Southern Weekend, who protested, accused the newspaper of having its New Year's message called for greater respect for constitutional rights, but Tuo Zhen ordered it to be significantly altered. The revised editorial became a praise of the party's policies. Tuo Zhen has yet to comment.

Negotiations between provincial propaganda officials and representatives of disgruntled journalists and managers at the paper continued on Tuesday, said a former editor at the Southern Newspaper Group, which owns Southern Weekend.

The former editor requested anonymity because he feared his current job would be in jeopardy. He said that the focus of the negotiations was on two demands made by journalists participating in the protest. One was to investigate the New Year's speech incident, and the other was that the newspaper management retract Tuo Zhen's statement that it had nothing to do with editorial.

"They are demanding a retraction of the statement and official assurances that restrictions on journalists will be relaxed. They are not asking for separation from the party's supervision, but for more reasonable supervision and allowing journalists to oppose officials," he said. "The other main demand is for a fair explanation of what happened before and a thorough investigation to avoid a recurrence."

The former editor also said that if the standoff continues into Wednesday, it may affect the newspaper's normal circulation on Thursday. He said, "Actually, this is a strike. It is not clear whether it can be published on Thursday."

So far, senior Chinese officials have not publicly expressed their opinions on the newspaper's censorship dispute. The dispute could test how far China's new top leader, Xi Jinping, can go in favoring more open economic and political policies. "I don't think Xi Jinping's remarks on reform are all hypocritical," said Chen Min, a former well-known commentator on Southern Weekend. In 2011, Chen Min was forced to leave Southern Zhou during the CCP's crackdown on potential dissidents.

Defenders of communist orthodoxy showed up at the newspaper's headquarters on Tuesday to defend the party's tight control of the media.

"Support the Communist Party, shut down the traitorous newspapers," one of the ten conservative demonstrators held high a placard.

"Southern Weekend embraces the American dream," read another slogan. "We don't want the American dream, we want the Chinese dream."

Most CCP supporters refused to reveal their names. Yang Xingfa (transliteration) from Hunan Province revealed his name and said, "Southern Weekend belongs to the people. However, the newspaper always ignores the achievements of the Chinese Communist Party and always asks why China can't be more like the United States. It's so shameless!"

Some participants held up portraits of Mao Zedong; others waved national and party flags. They said their actions were spontaneous and not officially requested.

The confrontation between the two groups outside the newspaper's headquarters reflects the intense political emotions and tensions triggered by the censorship dispute. The matter has been widely discussed on the Internet, and finding a solution to the impasse has become a challenge for the central government and Hu Chunhua, the new party secretary of Guangdong and the likely successor to Xi Jinping in a decade.

Left-wing protesters called out to more than 20 protesters who denounced censorship. There were shoving and scuffles between the two sides. Hundreds of passers-by looked on and filmed the scene with their mobile phones. The approximately 70 police and security personnel present mostly just watched, occasionally taking action to pull people from both sides apart.

During the confrontation, someone threw 50-cent banknotes (worth about 8 cents) at leftist protesters. The term "50 Cent Party" is widely used to mock pro-party leftists. Critics say that the "50 Cent Party" can be paid 50 cents for posting a post supporting the party online.

One of the supporters of the Southern Weekend reporter is the 28-year-old poet Liang Taiping, who wears a mask popularized by Hollywood movies and the British comic "V for Vendetta". He said he bought the mask after seeing the film on state broadcaster China Central Television. To the surprise of many Chinese, TV stations did not cut out the film, which advocates overthrowing one-party rule.

"Southern Weekend is the only newspaper in China that is willing to tell the truth," Liang Taiping said. He added that he came by train from Changsha, nearly 500 miles away, to express his support. "Without freedom of speech, what's the point of living?"

"New York Times" Beijing correspondent Edward Wong reported from Guangzhou and Chris Buckley from Hong Kong. Jonah M. Kessel contributed reporting from Guangzhou and Jonathan Ansfield from Beijing. Mia Li contributed research to this article from Guangzhou.