New editor appointed at paper to calm dispute over censorship
Owners of Southern Weekly make leadership change to resolve dispute between editorial staff and propaganda officials, which spurred protest
A more open-minded editor-in-chief has stepped in to run the daily operation of in the aftermath of the row between its editorial staff and propaganda officials over interference in editorial operations.
The newspaper's latest edition yesterday included a correction for blunders that appeared in the introductory message in the paper's New Year edition, the first formal response since the censorship row.
Meanwhile, the new provincial party boss told cadres yesterday that the authorities should firmly maintain the initiative in "ideological works".
A source close to Guangdong's provincial government said Wang Genghui , a deputy editor-in-chief of Nanfang Media Group, which owns the newspaper, had taken over from Huang Can , editor-in-chief since 2009. Huang had been sidelined and was likely to be transferred to another post in the group.
"Wang has a rather popular image as he is more willing to listen to editors and journalists," the source said. "But this is likely to be a transitional role to restore normal operation at the newspaper as soon as possible."
This week's newspaper included a veiled protest saying that editorial procedures should be respected and made corrections - a typographical error, the erroneous numbering of the edition and a factual flaw that said flood control work by "Yu the Great" happened 2,000 years ago, instead of 4,000 years ago.
