The public campaign against the Communist Party's decision to insert a propaganda editorial into the influential Southern Weekend newspaper in Guangzhou entered its second day yesterday with hundreds of vocal protesters denouncing the move.
Some Southern Weekend journalists returned to work yesterday after walking out on Monday in one of the first newspaper strikes in China in nearly two decades.
About 200 supporters remained outside the newspaper's headquarters yesterday, calling for independent media to be allowed in China.
Waving placards and shouting "media freedom" in Mandarin, the protesters at times clashed with censorship supporters who held posters of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong and banners reading: "Erase American-supported Chinese betrayers."
A Southern Weekend supporter, Alex He, said the country's media control remained in place despite the government's insistence that censorship did not take place. "In my opinion, I don't think we have a really free media," Mr He told The Australian.
"Other countries have a free media, but I don't think China does. I think what we are seeing here is a celebration that we want a free media."
A wheelchair-bound Xiao Qinshang was at the centre of the protests demanding China implement a rule of law and allow freedom of speech. However, a communist supporter, Yang Xinhua, became involved in a heated exchange, accusing those who supported independent media of betrayal.
"Don't you support Chairman Mao's thinking? If so, you should support us to beat the traitors' papers," Mr Yang said.
"Who is behind them? The Americans.
"The Americans are money-driven, they are fighting everywhere in the world only to kill people who do not listen to them."
There was speculation the censorship backers, who were mostly older, were brought in by the government after the first day of protests on Monday featured only Southern Weekend supporters.
The campaign was watched and filmed by Guangdong province police, who have allowed the protest to continue over the past two days.
It was revealed yesterday that the Communist Party's propaganda department had forced hundreds of state-owned newspapers to publish an editorial supporting censorship.
The editorial said the Southern Weekend's strike was prompted by "hostile foreign forces" but did not give details.
"Because of China's social and political realities, the press freedoms asked by these people simply don't exist," it said.
"Media reform is only part of China's larger reforms, and it will never become a special area.
"Even in the West a mainstream media will not choose open confrontation with the government. If they want to do so, they will lose."
The propaganda department also issued newspaper editors with an "urgent" memo that the party still had "absolute control" of the nation's press.
The internet censorship of the Southern Weekend's supporters was maintained yesterday, with hundreds of Weibo accounts taken offline.
Additional reporting: Zhang Yufei
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