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Professor reportedly fired for calling for freer press in China

A journalism professor at China's most prominent university was reportedly fired after he called for the abolition of the Communist Party's propaganda department in an article that circulated on the Internet.

Jiao Guobiao said Peking University forced him to stop teaching in September because of the article, then fired him as he prepared to go to the US for a six-month research trip, US-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia reported.

Jiao's article called for the party propaganda unit to be abolished, saying it was impeding China's development. The government controls all media in China, and the party propaganda unit often tells outlets how to report major stories.

"I don't think I have done anything wrong," Jiao was quoted as telling Radio Free Asia. "If Chinese society really hasn't changed its attitudes toward freedom of expression, towards spiritual and ideological freedoms in the past 50 to 60 years, then this is unacceptable."

A Peking University spokeswoman contacted yesterday rejected reports of Jiao's dismissal as "nonsense." She refused to give her name.

But Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper quoted university spokesman Zhao Weimin as saying Jiao was fired due to the length of his proposed US trip and for leaving without permission.

Jiao arrived in Washington on March 16 at the invitation of the US National Endowment for Democracy, RFA said. It said he plans to conduct research on China's news industry.

"It is being treated as a voluntary quitting of my post," Jiao was quoted as saying. "It's not quite the same as being fired outright, but I don't really know what the difference is from an administrative point of view."
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