South China Morning Post
March 14, 2006

The dismissal of senior editorial staff at the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekend has focused attention on the city’s media market

The dismissal of senior editorial staff at the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekend has again focused attention on the city’s media market – the mainland’s most competitive. The newspaper’s bold investigative reporting has attracted a national readership. The removal of its acting editor, Qian Gang, and front-page editor Zhang Ping, who uses the pseudonym Chang Ping, was first reported on Tuesday. Four other Southern Weekend staff are also believed to have been removed from their posts, including a senior management official, another senior editor and two journalists. At least three of the six staff will be subject to only token punishments, allowing them remain at the paper but with different job titles. Former Southern Weekend editor Jiang Yiping did not even vacate her office after she was sidelined in a similar fashion last year. The Southern Weekend’s latest run-in with the Government at least puts it in fine company. Last month the Southern Metropolis News, a popular daily tabloid and sister publication of the Southern Weekend, twice fell foul of the authorities. On May 10, it angered the Shenzhen Government with the launch of a high-profile, two-day campaign protesting against what it said was a block on its distribution in the Special Economic Zone by two rival papers and the Shenzhen Press Distribution Bureau. Less than a week later, the Guangzhou municipal Government held an unprecedented press conference to condemn the paper after it reprinted a small article from the Beijing-based Market News saying that Guangzhou ranked among the world’s 10 most polluted cities.