China Digital Times

Stories tagged with: Freezing Point (20)

• Hah! Wen Jiabao Said We Could Run It…

  

  It’s not a bad day for Chinese journalists, relatively speaking, when they can run their own personal horror stories about getting harassed. In the past day, the horror story they’ve been talking about is Liu Wanyong’s.

  Liu, an investigative reporter for the China Youth Daily’s watchdog supplement Freezing Point, got a quite a fright on Tuesday in Liaoning province, where he went to cover the trial of retired Fuxin mayor Wang Yachen. The 74-year-old Wang, along with his son and two others, is accused of abusing his position to commandeer a huge department store project. He also allegedly arranged for an estranged business partner to be locked up for nearly a year. It was Liu’s expose in Freezing Point, last May, that turned the tables on the Wangs. The Wangs did try to return the favor, suing Liu for libel in December. But a Beijing court threw out that claim because the Wangs were already indicted on corruption charges.

  So naturally the Wang family was none too pleased to see Liu show up at the trial this week. Lucky for him, the proceedings were held in Dandong, not Fuxin. Liu survived to write a sidebar about his brush with danger and the predicament of reporters like him, which ran in Freezing Point on Wednesday alongside his whimsical account of the trial. You’ll find a rough translation below.

  For Chinese muckrakers out there, one lesson to be learned from Liu and the Youth Daily is: hit ‘em when they’re down. Pix of journos and cameramen taking a whooping at the hands of roughnecks are sprayed over Internet bulletin boards regularly nowadays, but it’s still quite rare for a paper to run meta-coverage as lofty and explicit as Liu’s (he cites Wen Jiabao). His is the kind of tattle tale that tends to emerge after a ugly, protracted struggle: Some powerful big-city media outlet has won a decisive ruling over some small-town official or businessman, and such is the spoils of victory.

  Another recent example was the case of Liu Binglu, the Beijing News reporter who broke the story of the village siege in Dingzhou in June 2005, which helped bring down top government officials there the same day it ran. Things didn’t come off so smoothly for Liu Binglu a few weeks later, though, when he returned to Dingzhou in pursuit of a tip about slave labor practices. Dingzhou police and propagandists were waiting. Liu was interrogated at his hotel and by the next morning his subject, a migrant named Chen Zhongming, had vanished mysteriously. So less than a few later, the paper shot back with a damning two-page account, entitled, “In Search of the Missing Informant, Chen Zhongming.” The piece implied the Dingzhou government was responsible for the man’s disappearance. A couple months passed before Liu Binglu tracked down Chen in Shenzhen. He still doesn’t know what exactly happened to Chen in Dingzhou (Chen wouldn’t say).

  Thing is, when Chinese journalists go so far as to print their trials, colleagues are not uniformly sympathic. In fact, they’re increasingly quick to wince at the questionable ethics at play whenever the media becomes the story. On BBS’s like Reporter’s Home last year, Liu Binglu and the Beijing News were skewered by some commentators who they contended they put Liu in harm’s way. “Bob Woodward would never reveal his sources,” quipped one. Likewise, Liu Wanyong got razzed a bit on Reporter’s Home this week. “Congratulations,” cracked one commentator, “You’re famous.”

  To read Liu’s sidebar, click here.
  Here’s a China Times (Huaxia Shibao) pick-up of Liu’s piece, which was in turn picked up in other papers.
  Liu’s piece about the trial is here.
  Read this post by HKU’s China Media Project for more background on the libel suit
  A translation of Liu’s sidebar follows…

  » Read more
  • October 26, 2006 3:23 AM

• Press freedom is gaining momentum on mainland, says outspoken academic - Kristine Kwok

  

  The South China Morning Post reports on a talk by mainland philosophy professor Yuan Weishi, whose essay about Chinese history was cited by the government in their decision to close down Freezing Point Weekly:

  Speaking avidly about how China should learn from mistakes in history — a balanced account not distorted by the authorities — Sun Yat-sen University professor Yuan Weishi may sound like an idealist.

  But the controversial philosophy professor also knows how to stay clear of potholes on the path to free speech on the mainland.

  “We better not discuss this question, because this is a taboo … I would like to maintain my right of speech on the mainland … Some people criticise the Communist Party in overseas publications. That’s much easier [than what I'm doing], but I would rather publish essays on the mainland,” Professor Yuan said when asked a sensitive question yesterday while in Hong Kong to promote a new book on Sun Yat-sen.

  » Read more
  • October 17, 2006 9:07 PM

• China Youth Daily Chief Sacked -Reports

  

  Li Erliang, Editor-in-Chief of China Youth Daily, a newspaper owned by China Youth League, was sacked, Hong Kong newspaper Wen Hui Po reported. Li was replaced by Chen Xiaochuan, editor of Freezing Point, a weekly additional edition of the newspaper.

  Li’s removal wasn’t elaborated by China Youth Daily, and the reason behind this is also unknown.

  Chen Xiaochuan was appointed as the editor of Freezing Point after its former editor Li Datong was fired. Li’s dismissal was widely publicized.

  The newspaper’s Party chief, Wang Hongqiu, was also removed, Wen Hui Po said.

  -Click HERE to read the report (Chinese)
  
  -Click HERE to read the report from China Times. The Taiwan Newspaper indicated that Li’s removal is due to the Freezing Point event early this year.

  -More from CDT on Freezing Point

  » Read more
  • October 16, 2006 2:17 PM

• There’s hope on the horizon - Li Datong

  

  In the South China Morning Post, via Asia Media, former Freezing Point editor Li Datong writes:

  A remarkable incident has emboldened mainland Chinese journalists. The government suspended publication of the Bingdian Weekly newspaper supplement this year, provoking unprecedented open protest that received extensive media coverage worldwide. Even more surprisingly, the government, under the pressure of public opinion, allowed Bingdian to resume publication. The editor-in-chief and his deputy were sacked, but the open questioning of the legitimacy of the government’s regulation of journalism is bound to have a profound impact.

  Foreign observers are prone to associate the incident with other recent crackdowns on China’s mass media, and to conclude that journalistic freedom is a hopeless cause on the mainland. There has been no significant change in the government’s system of regulating journalism during the almost 30 years of its open-door policy in other areas. On the contrary, it has become more rigorous and covert.

  But I still have faith that subtle changes are occurring. [Full text]

  » Read more
  • July 29, 2006 7:46 AM

• Ex-editor sees hope for press freedom - Vivian Wu

  

  From the South China Morning Post, via Asia Media (link):

  It has been less than three months since Li Datong’s turbulent departure from the helm of the gutsy Bingdian Weekly, but the 54-year-old pinup for press freedom on the mainland can already laugh about his abrupt removal.

  And he is optimistic that the time will come when an independent mainland media will be able to pursue stories based on news value rather than an official line…

  Mr Li said he and his colleagues “have been trying to reveal the real lives of Chinese people, to be close to their happiness and sorrows, and, by all means, to push forward change of the social system”.

  » Read more
  • May 4, 2006 3:59 PM

• A Year of Some Significance - Geremie R. Barm√©

  

  The following essay by Geremie R. Barm√© originally appeared in the Review weekly supplement, The Australian Financial Review, 31st March 2006. Published without notes under the title “Historical Distortions”. Thanks to Mr. Barm√© for allowing CDT to reprint it here.

  A Year of Some Significance
  
  By Geremie R. Barmé

  History matters. It matters in Australia where, in January this year, John Howard declared that the teaching of history in high schools is of national importance. He also claimed that, “too often, history has succumbed to a postmodern culture of relativism where any objective record of achievement is questioned or repudiated.” [1]

  Just as the Prime Minister was exercising us with his historical lament, Hu Jintao, China’s president and the head of its ruling Communist Party, was also taking a stand on history, one that was against those who presume to question and repudiate official accounts of that country’s past. Leaders with a certain afflatus come to think that their tenure in power gives them a right not only to direct their nation’s future, but that it also bestows upon them a droit de seigneur over the past.

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  • April 20, 2006 10:01 AM

• Professor hits back at critics on the Internet - Vivian Wu

  

  From the South China Morning Post, via Asia Media (link):

  A Guangzhou professor attacked in print last month over his call for “an objective attitude to history” has hit back at critics in a 15,000-word article circulated on the internet.

  Yuan Weishi’s article was put online last night by Li Datong, the sacked editor of a formerly outspoken Beijing weekly.

  Professor Yuan wrote the article in response to front-page criticism of his views by government-appointed Marxist historian Zhang Haipeng. He then submitted it to the resurrected Bingdian Weekly, the China Youth Daily supplement that was shut down for five weeks earlier this year for publishing Professor Yuan’s opinions.

  Yuan Weishi’s essay is available online (in Chinese) here. See also “New Freezing Point Editor Challenges Overseas Media to Report” from ESWN.

  » Read more
  • April 7, 2006 9:04 PM

• From Binyan to Freezing Point - Qian Gang

  

  ESWN has translated an article (link) by prominent Chinese journalist and former managing editor of Southern Weekend, Qian Gang, about the connections between Liu Binyan and the restructuring of Freezing Point:

  Number 2, Ocean Transport Warehouse, Dongzhimen South Little Street, Beijing, is the address of China Youth Daily. There is half a century between 1956 and 2006, but two historical events occurred in this same compound. In the former case, the newspaper’s reporter Liu Binyan (ÂàòÂÆæÈõÅ) published “On the Bridge Worksite” and “Internal News at our Newspaper” and was then branded a “rightist” one year later. In the latter case, the Freezing Point weekly magazine was suspended for re-organization, and the chief editor Li Datong and the deputy editor Lu Yuegang were both relieved of their duties. Incredibly, in this “historical replay,” the person who led the struggle against Liu Binyan during the Cultural Revolution is the Central Propaganda News Critical Reading Group director who wiped out Freezing Point in 2006.

  » Read more
  • April 5, 2006 10:46 AM

• Protest editor sent to ‘research room’ - Richard Spencer

  

  From The Telegraph (link):

  Chinese journalists who cross their government are often fired and sometimes jailed. So its most famous banned editor is lucky: he is only being sent to the “new study research room”.

  Li Datong, who has just suffered this fate for a second time, infuriated the Communist Party’s propaganda department by taking on his editor-in-chief and publishing articles on history and politics that challenged sensitive party orthodoxy.

  His magazine, Bingdian, or Freezing Point, was closed last month and he was demoted to “research”. But his success in inflicting two defeats on his bosses has made him a test case of efforts to curb the media.

  More articles on Li Datong, via Google News.

  » Read more
  • February 28, 2006 7:37 PM

• China’s censored media answers back - Tim Luard

  

  From the BBC (link):

  The media scene in China has come a long way since the days when revolutionary slogans blared from loudspeakers in paddy-fields.

  But today’s Communist Party bosses are as determined as ever to maintain control over every word published or broadcast in the world’s most populous country.

  A media clampdown - the latest of many over the years - has seen a string of journalists disciplined, dismissed or even jailed for violating official guidelines.

  Some of the campaign’s targets, however, are refusing to be silenced.

  See also “China’s Sanctioned Dissent” from washingtonpost.com.

  Technorati Tags: China, press freedom

  » Read more
  • February 23, 2006 10:59 AM

• The Click That Broke a Government’s Grip - Philip P. Pan

  

  From The Washington Post:

  Although just a fraction of all Chinese go online — and most who do play games, download music or gossip with friends — widespread Internet use in the nation’s largest cities and among the educated is changing the way Chinese learn about the world and weakening the Communist Party’s monopoly on the media. Studies show China’s Internet users spend more time online than they do with television and newspapers, and they are increasingly turning to the Web for news instead of traditional state outlets.

  » Read more
  • February 19, 2006 1:23 PM

• Fired Editors of Chinese Journal Call for Free Speech in Public Letter - Jim Yardley

  

  From The New York Times:

  The controversy over news media censorship in China continued Friday as two editors who had been removed from a feisty weekly journal, Freezing Point, issued a public letter lashing out at propaganda officials and calling for free speech.

  Meanwhile on Friday, a group of prominent scholars and lawyers who had contributed articles to the journal wrote an open letter to President Hu Jintao, 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 came as intellectuals and some former party officials have sharply criticized the recent increase in censorship of the news media. Propaganda officials, who shut down Freezing Point last month, announced this week that the publication would restart March 1, but without the top two editors.

  See also ESWN’s translation of “There Was A Man Named Liu Binyan,” an essay which became the pretext for Lu Yuegang’s dismissal.

  » Read more
  • February 18, 2006 8:27 AM

• China to reprint weekly - Benjamin Kang Lim and Chris Buckley (Updated)

  

  (originally posted 2/16/06; updated 2/17/06 12:00 pm PST)

  From Reuters:

  The official China Youth Daily decided on Thursday to revive a provocative weekly section closed by censors last month, but shunted aside the two editors who made it a standard-bearer for combative journalism.

  Communist Party officials in charge of the newspaper, the mouthpiece of the party’s youth wing, bowed to an outcry and decided to resume publishing the weekly Freezing Point section from March 1, the weekly’s editor Li Datong said by telephone.

  But Li and Lu Yuegang, a famed investigative reporter, will be removed as editor and deputy editor respectively of the weekly and shunted to the newspaper’s news research office, Li said.

  More on this topic, via Google News.

  UPDATE: See ESWN’s translation of Li Datong and Lu Yuegang’s February 17 open letter on the reorganization of Freezing Point.

  » Read more
  • February 17, 2006 12:10 PM

• Beijing Censors Taken to Task in Party Circles - Joseph Kahn

  

  From the New York Times:

  A dozen former Communist Party officials and senior scholars, including a onetime secretary to Mao, a party propaganda chief and the retired bosses of some of the country’s most powerful newspapers, have denounced the recent closing of a prominent news journal, helping to fuel a growing backlash against censorship.

  A public letter issued by the prominent figures, dated Feb. 2 but circulated to journalists in Beijing on Tuesday, appeared to add momentum to a campaign by a few outspoken editors against micromanagement, personnel shuffles and an ever-expanding blacklist of banned topics imposed on China’s newspapers, magazines, television stations and Web sites by the party’s secretive Propaganda Department.

  More on this topic, via Google News.

  » Read more
  • February 15, 2006 10:03 AM

• Party elders attack China censors - BBC

  

  From the BBC:

  A group of former senior Communist party officials in China have launched a scathing attack on the country’s handling of the media and information.

  In an open letter, the group denounced the recent closure of investigative newspaper Bingdian (Freezing Point).

  They said strict censorship may “sow the seeds of disaster” for China’s political transition.

  Among the signatories are an ex-aide to Mao Zedong, a former newspaper editor and a former party propaganda chief.

  Technorati Tags: censorship, China

  » Read more
  • February 14, 2006 7:32 AM