(RSF/IFEX) – In an 18 April 2000 letter to Ding Guangen, director of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda department, RSF protested the closure of the weekly “Beijing Scene” by the authorities. RSF asked the director to allow “Beijing Scene” to resume publication. Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, said this strong sanction against a publication […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In an 18 April 2000 letter to Ding Guangen, director of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda department, RSF protested the closure of the weekly “Beijing Scene” by the authorities. RSF asked the director to allow “Beijing Scene” to resume publication. Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, said this strong sanction against a publication aimed at westerners living in Beijing came just as the CCP was reinforcing propaganda in the media. Some journalists regarded as liberals by authorities were also fired.
According to the information collected by RSF, on 14 April, the Chinese authorities decided to close the English-language weekly “Beijing Scene”, which is aimed at the western community in Beijing. The French news agency Agence France-Presse said the sanction was carried out after the publication of an article regarded as “biased” by the authorities on “Beijing Scene”‘s web site. On 18 April, it was impossible to access the site. With a circulation of 20,000 and freely available in Beijing, the weekly focuses particularly on cultural and entertainment news. The closure was announced as propaganda against Western countries and liberalism was at its height in Chinese media. Following the publication on the Internet of a critical essay against the CCP last December, written by political commentator Li Shenzhi, some journalists regarded as liberals by the CCP were banned, such as Wang Yan, editor of the weekly “China Business”. At the beginning of April, the chief editor of the magazine “Zhonggou Gaige Bao” was dismissed after he wrote about the privatisation process in China. Finally, various media, including the “People’s Daily” and “Guangming Daily”, strongly attacked supporters of liberalism.
