A newspaper in southern China has suspended a cartoonist after he drew a weeping Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Depicting national leaders in cartoons is considered politically incorrect in China, although it is periodically done without repercussions, the South China Morning Post said.
But the cartoon by artist Kuang Biao of a teary-eyed Hu, depicted as replying to a letter from the daughter of a university professor who died from overwork aged 48, was regarded by censors as unacceptable, the newspaper said.
The Guangzhou-based tabloid News Express, which published the drawing on Monday, suspended Kuang in what he considered a pre-emptive move to protect him from further punishment from the central propaganda authorities, the Post said.
"It's a gesture by the newspaper to show that action has been taken against their wayward journalist," the Post quoted Kuang as saying. "Sometimes in China, a good offence is the best defence."
Kuang is being allowed to draw for other publications under a pseudonym, it said.
Meanwhile, China yesterday defended controls on foreign news agencies' access to the Chinese market, saying the government's Xinhua news agency will not abuse its new monopoly nor obstruct the flow of economic information to the financial community.
Officials from the premier to government functionaries tried to temper rising international criticism that the new regulations -- which give Xinhua control over the distribution in China of foreign agencies' news and other services -- was anticompetitive and a blow to free expression.
The rules tighten already severe restrictions on foreign agencies such as The Associated Press and Reuters that want wider access to the fast-growing Chinese market ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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