An editor at a popular Chinese newspaper has been fired and journalists forced to undergo political instruction, part of what observers say is a new clampdown on the news media.
Ma Yunlong was removed Friday as deputy editor in chief of the Dahe News in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, a newspaper spokeswoman said. Ma said his dismissal came after he approved articles that exposed corruption among health officials and business regulators.
"These articles were well-intentioned and sought to improve the overall environment" in Henan, Ma said by telephone. "I was just doing my job."
Journalists and media watchers said a new campaign of firings, closures and intimidation is under way to rein in newspapers seen as challenging the Communist Party's strict limits on coverage.
Two top editors at Southern Weekend, one of China's most aggressive newspapers, were dismissed less than two weeks ago following official complaints about their articles.
Officials at the government's All-China Journalism Association say that reporters and editors nationwide are being forced to attend refresher courses on the role of the media in China's communist society.
And at least one popular newspaper has been closed under murky circumstances. Authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan recently shuttered Shubao, a daily that enjoyed high readership and relative autonomy from government departments.
While all newspapers are state-owned, dwindling subsidies have forced officials to let them compete for readers with livelier stories that sometimes cross the line of official tolerance.
But periodic clampdowns have at times occurred. Officials this year are concerned that independent reporting could fan resentment over rising unemployment and official corruption.
Many also want to muzzle the media to prevent it from joining in power struggles as China begins a transition to a new generation of top leaders next year.
"The party has no intention of allowing a free press, but now they have to contend with growing professionalism among journalists, profit seeking by media and the effects of exposure to media outside China," said Joseph Cheng, a China watcher at City University of Hong Kong.
The Dahe spokeswoman said government investigators cited an article approved by Ma and published Feb. 28 that said health insurance officials were accompanied by paid female escorts supplied by drug and medical companies at a nationwide industry conference.
Ma said the article was written jointly by reporters from the Dahe News and the government's official Xinhua News Agency.
Ma said he also was criticized for approving use of a Xinhua article in March that aired complaints by foreign investors about graft, chaotic management and obstruction by Henan officials.
An official of the Henan provincial propaganda department, which oversees media in the province, denied that anyone had been penalized at the newspaper.
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