Local Officials Censor Guangzhou Newspaper

The Southern Daily reported on June 22 that someone removed pages A35 and A36 from copies of the June 21 edition of its sister publication, the Southern Metropolitan Daily, that were distributed in the Da Gang township. These pages included an investigative article entitled "Township Government Levies Land in Violation of Regulations, Villagers Petition Government to Have it Returned," which reported that 1,147 people from the Long Gu village in Da Gang had petitioned for the return of approximately three acres of land that had been requisitioned by the township real estate development company.

This is not the first time local officials in one area have censored critical reports published by state run media in other areas. The CECC noted in its 2004 Annual Report that government officials in Dingnan county, Jiangxi province, removed pages of the People's Daily before it was distributed in August 2003. The excised pages included a report about corruption in the county government. The problem is widespread enough that the editor-in-chief of Xinhua mentioned it in an editorial in a recent edition of "Seeking Truth" - the journal of China's Communist Party:

[S]ome even abuse their administrative authority to suppress criticism, interfere with public opinion supervision, and some restrict newspapers, magazines, and radio and television programs from undertaking normal distribution, sales, and broadcasts in their area, in order to avoid public opinion supervision.

While central authorities criticize the censorship practices of local governments, they support identical censorship practices when they are employed by the General Administration of Press and Publication.