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Officials Ban Reporting on
Sensitive Subjects, Including Province's Handling
of SARS, Journalists Say
By John Pomfret
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 20, 2003; Page A19
BEIJING, June 19 -- The Chinese government, apparently
fearing the kind of aggressive reporting that took
place during the SARS epidemic and other recent
scandals, has launched a media crackdown, closing one
newspaper and ordering all publications to stop
reporting on sensitive topics, journalists said today.
The crackdown ends a period of relative openness for
the tightly controlled news media, journalists and
editors said. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen
Jiabao have promoted limited political and social
changes since they took office in March, while also
signaling that they intend to maintain controls on
public dissent and freedoms.
There is some doubt about exactly how successful the
news crackdown will be. Reporters and editors say they
are increasingly eager to challenge or bend government
rules, and information also is available across the
country on unofficial Internet sites beyond government
control.
The government has shut down Beijing New Times, a
small newspaper run by the Worker's Daily Group, one
of the country's biggest newspaper publishing
companies, sources at the newspaper said. Beijing New
Times was shut two weeks ago after it published a list
of the seven "most nauseating things" in China, a
cutting parody of the Communist system. The article
criticized the rubber-stamp National People's Congress
and another consultative body called the Chinese
People's Consultative Conference, whose members, the
report said, "are so old they've forgotten their names."
The editorial staff of Beijing New Times has been
fired, sources at the newspaper said.
Editors and journalists at several other publications
in Beijing and elsewhere said the Ministry of
Propaganda had directed them in recent days to stop
reporting independently on several specific subjects.
The newspapers were forbidden to write stories
critical of the Guangdong provincial government's
handling of the initial outbreak of SARS, severe acute
respiratory syndrome, reporters said.
Propaganda officials also banned further reporting on
Jiang Yanyong, a whistle-blowing doctor who accused
the government of lying about the SARS outbreak,
editors said. Jiang, 72, has been the subject of
profiles and interviews since he wrote an open letter
to the government accusing it of covering up of the
epidemic.
Although Jiang has not been arrested, he is having
difficulty obtaining permission from his employer, No.
301 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, to
travel abroad to visit his daughter in the United
States, sources said.
The Propaganda Ministry also banned reporting on Sun
Zhigang, a graphic designer who died in police custody
in March. Sun's death, first reported by
the Southern Metropolitan News in the southern city of
Guangzhou, touched off criticism about police
brutality. Sun was detained by police for not carrying
an identification card as required under a vagrancy
law that was struck down Wednesday by the State
Council, China's cabinet.
Government critics have said Sun's death led to the
government decision to abolish the law, which gave
police broad detention powers.
"So we have the new government responding to a report
in the media and at the same time cracking down on the
media," a senior Chinese editor said.
Reporting also is not allowed on two Chinese
businessmen, Zhou Zhengyi and Yang Bin, editors said.
Zhou was detained last month in connection with a $270
million loan he received from the Bank of China in
Hong Kong. Zhou's case is sensitive because he
conducted real estate business in Shanghai and is
believed to have maintained close relations with the
city's senior politicians.
Yang, who was born in China but holds North Korean and
Dutch citizenship, was arrested earlier this year in a
tax investigation. Yang's case has a political
dimension because he has been designated by North
Korean leader Kim Jong Il to run an experimental
economic development zone in North Korea.
Editors and journalists said the Propaganda Ministry
censured the newspaper Economic Observer for
criticizing Zhang Wenkang, a former health minister
who lost his job after covering up the SARS epidemic,
and Gao Qiang, a deputy minister of health who
defended Zhang's performance.
Also censured was a newsmagazine, Sanlian Life Weekly,
for publishing a picture of Jiang, the doctor, on its
cover with the headline: "Jiang Yanyong: The interests
of the people are more important than anything."
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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