Danwei translates an article by Zi Zhongjun, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, calling for systematic reforms to guarantee a free press:
To carry out freedom of speech and the right of expression, private-sector newspapers and periodicals must be permitted. They say you can criticize “according to the law,” but this “law” rests in the hands of the leaders. A few newspapers in the south are market-driven and no longer live off the state, but the higher-ups can still replace editors and publishers. And the publishing houses: they don’t need to openly say that you can’t publish this or that book. They just give you fewer book numbers and you can’t handle it. There are lots of techniques for limiting the right of expression, so there’s fundamentally no need to openly announce that freedom of speech is being suppressed, or that you aren’t being permitted to say something. Call up the editor or publisher, make an anonymous phone call—no one will dare to disobey. If you really disobey, there goes your job. The editor himself may not care, but his underlings will lose their jobs too. To date there has been no posture of relaxing controls on speech; it’s just that the methods have changed.
