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China's Media Crackdown Draws Fire ALEXA OLESEN / Associated Press | February 15 2006 BEIJING -- A group of Chinese Communist Party elders and scholars have issued a joint letter criticizing a government campaign to tighten media controls and expressed support for a newspaper supplement that was shut down after reporting on sensitive issues. The startling letter issued by 13 retired officials, academics and senior media officials called on President Hu Jintao's government to stop what it called unconstitutional and illegal assaults on freedom of speech. Such an outcry from within official ranks reflects growing public frustration at media controls. It was circulated this week to foreign reporters in Beijing. Hu's government has shut down newspapers, dismissed editors and arrested journalists in a campaign to tighten control over the information reaching China's public. Targets of the crackdown have included newspapers that are known for outspoken coverage of corruption, environmental problems and rural poverty. In the latest incident, the Communist Party Propaganda Department ordered the closure of Freezing Point, a weekly supplement to the China Youth Daily newspaper, published by the party's Communist Youth League. The 13 prominent political figures said the closure showed that the powerful government organ had "perverted 'propaganda' into 'control.'" "This constitutes a violation of the constitution. In order to control public opinion, they have diminished freedom of speech, made blacklists, and conducted secret investigations," it said. "These deeds are ridiculous and rude and totally beyond the boundaries of law." Its signers included Li Rui, a former secretary to communist founder Mao Zedong; Zhu Zehou, former head of the party's Propaganda Department in the 1980s; and Li Pu, former deputy director of the government's Xinhua News Agency. "I saw the letter Tuesday morning and I was really touched," said Freezing Point's editor Li Datong. "I feel that the voice of these people really represents the true opinion of the general public and inner party personnel ... I hope their letter will result in the improvement of work practices at the Propaganda Department." The unexpected criticism comes as U.S. lawmakers begin hearings in Washington on Wednesday to determine whether American Internet companies have helped China monitor Web use, track users and block access to foreign sites run by dissidents and human rights groups. It was disclosed last year that Yahoo provided information that Chinese authorities used to convict and jail reporter Shi Tao for revealing state secrets. The letter from the party veterans did not discuss Internet censorship specifically but called on the government to loosen its grip on freedom of speech, warning that failure to do so would incite unrest. "At this historic turning point as we shift from a centralized feudal system to a constitutional system, depriving the public the freedom to speak out will definitely cause trouble for our political and social transformation, and inevitably lead to mass antagonism and turbulence," the letter said. It also called on the government to allow Freezing Point to begin publishing again. The editor Li has also written to the Central Discipline Inspection Committee, the party's internal affairs watchdog, to protest Freezing Point's closure, demanding that the government launch an investigation into the incident. No reason has been announced for the closure. But Li has said it was the culmination of growing tensions over the supplement's content and a difference in journalistic values with the Communist Party Youth League, which owns the main paper. Over the weekend, an editor from another Chinese paper, the Public Interest Times, posted an unusual and angry public letter on the Internet detailing internal disputes over self-censorship, which he blamed for his demotion from section editor to regular editor. The paper's editor in chief said he was removed from his post because of his poor work standards. The letter, titled "Ridiculous Game, Despicable Intrigue," said editors frequently cave to government pressure and choose not to publish sensitive material. Last week, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said a newspaper editor in eastern China died after being beaten by police officers angered by his paper's reports on corruption in their ranks. Local media have not reported on the death of editor Wu Xianghu, a sign that propaganda authorities may have ordered them to avoid the topic. ---------------------------------------------------
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