HASH(0x871ac2c) **Updates IFEX alert of 12 January 1999** (WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: Paris 19 January, 1999 For immediate release WAN Protests Closure, Intimidation of Chinese Press The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has protested against the closure of a Chinese newspaper and government intimidation of another, saying the actions violate […]
HASH(0x871ac2c)
**Updates IFEX alert of 12 January 1999**
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
Paris 19 January, 1999
For immediate release
WAN Protests Closure, Intimidation of Chinese Press
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has protested against the closure
of a Chinese newspaper and government intimidation of another, saying the
actions violate international conventions.
In a letter to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, WAN called for a lifting of a
ban imposed on the Guangdong-based Cultural Times and an end to government
intimidation of the press.
The Cultural Times was recently banned by Chinese authorities for
circulating outside of Guangdong province without government permission. In
a separate case, the local Communist party ordered the Guangzhou-Hong Kong
Daily News to dismiss its management staff because of “violations of
reporting rules and spreading liberal bourgeois thought.”
“The action taken against these newspapers represents a clear breach of
numerous international conventions, including the United Nations Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights that you signed last autumn,” said the letter to
the Chinese President, signed by WAN President Bengt Braun.
The Covenant states: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of
expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers.”
The Paris-based WAN, the global association of the newspaper industry which
represents 15,000 newspapers, defends and promotes press freedom and the
economic independence of newspapers world-wide. Its membership includes 57
national newspaper publishers associations, individual news executives in 90
countries, 17 news agencies and seven regional press groups.
