Newspaper feeling heat from Beijing

[dArKeR]

CENSORSHIP: Top staff face embezzlement charges, but many see the case as a test of Chinese officials' promise to tolerate greater freedom of expression

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , GUANGZHOU
Saturday, Apr 17, 2004,Page 4

After two years of state-imposed firings and staff reassignments and the suspension of one of its sister publications, the Chinese authorities have sharply stepped up their tactics in a campaign to rein in China's most widely respected news organization.

In recent weeks, alleging managerial corruption, provincial courts have handed down harsh prison sentences for senior executives of the Southern media group's Southern Metropolitan Daily and have initiated charges against the newspaper's top editor.

The provincial authorities in Guangzhou, China's third-largest city and a longstanding incubator of innovative journalism, have accused the newspaper's leaders of embezzlement. But reporters throughout the country and international advocates of press freedom see the case as a major test of China's new, reform-minded leaders' pledges to transform the country into a law-based society that tolerates greater freedom of expression.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2004/04/17/2003137003

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