Fergie's Tech Blog

Fired Chinese Editors Call for Press Freedom

A New York Times article by jim Yardley, via The International Herald Tribune, reports that:

Two editors who had been removed from a feisty weekly journal in China, Freezing Point, have issued a public letter lashing out at propaganda officials and calling for free speech.

Meanwhile, a group of prominent scholars and lawyers who had contributed articles to the journal wrote an open letter to President Hu Jintao of China, denouncing the crackdown against Freezing Point as a violation of the Chinese Constitution and of the promise made by top leaders for a consistent rule of law.

The two broadsides Friday came after intellectuals and some former party officials sharply criticized the recent increase in censorship of the news media. Propaganda officials, who shut down Freezing Point last month, announced last week that the publication would restart March 1, but without the top two editors.

In their public letter, which was released in Beijing, the two editors, Li Datong and Lu Yuegang, defended their stewardship of Freezing Point and made an ardent plea for freedom of expression, saying it was the role of the news media to investigate "unfairness in the world."

"What do the people want?" they wrote. "The freedom of publication and expression granted by the Constitution."

posted by Fergie @ 2/19/2006 12:05:00 PM